A Woman in the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution

Amid the horrific news about Syrian dissidents, mass killings, and government claims of terrorists, this unique document, written in the first months of the uprising, is a chronicle both of objective events and the visceral and psychic responses of an impassioned activist and artist. Yazbek, a writer, documentarian, and member of the ruling Alawite clan, had already sacrificed her privileged position through provocative acts even before the revolution began on March 15, 2011. The diaries, which begin on March 25, document her experience through the early months of the uprising as she participates in and observes the first demonstrations, goes into hiding in an apartment in downtown Damascus, defies her interrogators and witnesses torture in a secret prison, interviews activists, soldiers, and eyewitnesses to slaughter, and prepares to leave Syria to protect her daughter and “communicate to the world what’s happening here.” The book weaves journalistic reporting with intimate, poetic musings on an appalling reality. As she writes: “Death is a mobile creature that now walks on two legs.... I am the crime of treason against my society and my sect, but I am no longer afraid.” Agent: Jasmina Jraissati, Raya Agency, France. (Sept.)