Diaries of an Unfinished Revolution: Voices from Tunis to Damascus

With both poetic flourish and eyewitness intensity, the events of the Arab Spring are rendered newly relevant and visceral in this anthology of first-person accounts from Tunisia to Syria. In this haunting collection, editors Cassel, Al-Zubaidi, and Roderick present breathtakingly beautiful writing by young people who witnessed the remarkable events of 2011, and manage to accomplish what the media did not: provide context and meaning to a movement that confounded existing narratives of the Middle East. For example, Malek Sghiri and Yasmine El Rashidi capture the hopeless gloom of Tunis and Cairo under their respective regimes in successive chapters.Passionately vibrant accounts detail the fear, hurt, and frustration of people who have spent generations struggling to keep the spark of humanity alive in despairing conditions, and who, in moments of almost inconceivable bravery, put their lives at risk to change the world. “Tell them we won’t make excuses for living,” a young protestor tells Algerian journalist Ghannia Mouffok, whose incandescent essay “We are Not Swallows” captures the Algerian struggle; with these words, even in the face of Syria’s nightmare, and ongoing unrest in Egypt, the Arab Spring comes sharply into focus. (Jan.)