Great new novel from this Syrian author. Whilst this wasn't necessarily my cup of tea it will be of interest to my subscribers and so I will be sure to include it in my recommendation videos going forward. Especially for WIT month that is coming up soon.

A Young Syrian soldiers lies terribly injured under an ancient trees and reminisces about his life and what led to him being in this predicament.
This is a short, a perfectly crafted novel of poetic intensity, which somehow manages to get to the heart of the atrocities of war Whilst the story is specific for the modern day war in Syria, the novel has something to say about the effects of war, wherever, and whenever it happens. Soldiers are often conscripted and always had a life before they were forced to fight. In this novel, the author shows the effect of war on not just the individual fighting man, but also on their families.

The book is translated from the Arabic and has been so beautifully translated that it seems to me that it might just as well have been written in English. The language is beautiful sparse and poetic.
The author describes a cast of characters as varied, unique and individual people, there are some very memorable characters, including the village eccentric, who takes a young boy under her wing hands, allows him to come to terms with his uniqueness
I love the place the trees have in the novel they are seen as being a permanent presence throughout the life of the young man and symbolically the site of his mortal injury. The trees have somehow somehow a protective presence, and it’s longevity shows the cycle nature of war and peace.
Novel is published, in the UK on the 6th of February 2024, by worldEditions
This review will appear on NetGalley, UK good reads and my books log, bionicSarah‘sbooks.wordpress.com

This beautifully-written book, translated from the Arabic, tells the story of a young man named Ari, a soldier who has been gravely injured in action. As he lies on the ground and tries to come to terms with what happened and the extent of his injuries, he thinks about the things in his life that have led up to this moment.
The magic of this story lies in the author's poetic descriptions of both a country (Syria) and its people during conflict, as well as the gentle and sometimes gritty development of Ari's character. I highly recommend this intriguing story.

In Samar Yazbek’s new novel, Where The Wind Calls Home, Ali, a nineteen-year-old soldier in the Syrian army, is wounded, and reflects on his life and what led him to this point. The novel shows us Ali’s memories through vignettes, and follows him through the day in which his is the sole survivor of a bomb that killed his fellow soldiers.

We find out about Ali’s life, growing up in a traditional Syrian Alawite village, and the hardships of life there amongst the Syrian Civil War. Yazbek also makes the beauty of Syria and the people living there known, it’s rich cultural and religious heritage made clear by the poetic language used.

Although brief, this novel is truly beautiful – it is hard to read, but Yazbek’s every word is chosen deliberately, making this a powerful piece of fiction. The descriptions of the landscape are especially memorable, offsetting the graphic nature of the depictions of the every day realities of war.

This is a powerful, important novel that shows us what life is like for soldiers in the Syrian army in unflinching detail. It is certainly impressive and memorable, and something I would definitely recommend to those interested in literary fiction from across the world.

I really enjoyed this book. It was hard to read. Very hard at times, but it was written so beautifully. It felt almost like a fever dream. I could imagine myself there. This is definitely an author that I will be watching closely and look forward to future works.

Samar Yazbek is much acclaimed, both within her country and outside it, and has written in an impressively wide number of genres, from journalism to television drama. Written in richly poetic language, Where the Wind Calls Home is a brief but powerful piece of fiction that follows Ali through the day in which his comrades have been killed by a bomb leaving him the sole survivor, his every movement mirrored by the Other he thinks may be his soul.
From Ali’s hallucinatory reverie emerges the story of his life, the middle son of a mother, determined that her children escape poverty, whose dreams have been blown apart by Syria’s devastating civil war. Ali had been the difficult child, often angry and ridiculed by the villagers as much for his association with Humayrouna, the henna-haired centenarian who taught him about nature, as for his own eccentricities. As he struggles towards the oak tree so like the one he loves at home, determined to climb it before darkness falls, the severity of his injuries slowly becomes clear.
Yazbek’s descriptions of the landscape are beautiful, her depictions of what has happened to Ali and his comrades necessarily graphic. The visceral horrors of war are laid bare, the confusion and fear of people who do not understand its causes only the destruction of their own already impoverished lives, vividly evoked. Not an easy book to write about nor one to enjoy, for obvious reasons, but certainly impressive and memorable.