Available:*
Library | Collection | Collection | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Sunnyside Branch Library (Fresno Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Non-fiction Area | 956.91042 PEA | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Woodward Park Library (Fresno Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Non-fiction Area | 956.91042 PEA | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
LONG-LISTED FOR THE CARNEGIE MEDAL
Reminiscent of the work of Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich, an astonishing collection of intimate wartime testimonies and poetic fragments from a cross-section of Syrians whose lives have been transformed by revolution, war, and flight.
Against the backdrop of the wave of demonstrations known as the Arab Spring, in 2011 hundreds of thousands of Syrians took to the streets demanding freedom, democracy and human rights. The government's ferocious response, and the refusal of the demonstrators to back down, sparked a brutal civil war that over the past five years has escalated into the worst humanitarian catastrophe of our times.
Yet despite all the reporting, the video, and the wrenching photography, the stories of ordinary Syrians remain unheard, while the stories told about them have been distorted by broad brush dread and political expediency. This fierce and poignant collection changes that. Based on interviews with hundreds of displaced Syrians conducted over four years across the Middle East and Europe, We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled is a breathtaking mosaic of first-hand testimonials from the frontlines. Some of the testimonies are several pages long, eloquent narratives that could stand alone as short stories; others are only a few sentences, poetic and aphoristic. Together, they cohere into an unforgettable chronicle that is not only a testament to the power of storytelling but to the strength of those who face darkness with hope, courage, and moral conviction.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Pearlman (Violence, Nonviolence, and the Palestinian National Movement), a Northwestern University professor of political science specializing in the Middle East, collects powerful firsthand accounts from Syrians displaced by the ongoing civil war. In the introduction, Pearlman remarks that she and others initially doubted the Arab Spring would ever reach Syria, a sentiment repeated throughout. The book cannot cover the perspective of all Syrians, Pearlman acknowledges, but it does accomplish the goal of humanizing those interviewed, showing them simply as people rather than either victims or security threats. The book is divided into eight sections, with the first, "Authoritarianism," dealing with Syria before the protests. After part four, "Crackdown," the stories start to feel relentless in their despair-at one point, an interviewee says, "It had been so long since I heard someone died from natural causes"-but one would be hard pressed to call this a fault. It's unsurprising to see the anger not just toward Syrian president Bashar al-Assad but also toward the international community, with its many "red lines" for Assad crossed and ignored. Nonetheless, the book is filled with hope, informed by an understanding of the unity possible in spite of the discord sowed by Assad. Agent: Ayesha Pande, Ayesha Pande Literary. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Testimonials from Syrians about life before, during, and after the 2011 rebellion.Between 2012 and 2016, Pearlman (Comparative Politics/Northwestern Univ.; Violence, Nonviolence, and the Palestinian National Movement, 2011, etc.) had the unique opportunity to interview hundreds of Syrian refugees. The men and women with whom she spoke included "housewives and rebel fighters, hair-gelled teenagers and businessmen in well-pressed shirts, die-hard activists and ordinary families caught in the crossfire." In this book, she gathers together the stories and organizes them into eight separate sections that reflect "the major phases of the Syrian revolutionary experience." "Authoritarianism" and "Hope Disappointed" highlight the experiences of her interviewees during the pre-rebellion regime. Many speak of the uneasiness they experienced speaking ill of the government, even outside of their country: "even outside Syria you feel that someone is listening, someone is recording." Others openly critique the regime, saying that at its best, Syria was "a country of closed communities held together by force" that only became more corrupt and internally divided over time. In "Revolution," interviewees express the "sadness and happiness and fear and courage" they saw around them as men and women from all the different Syrian communitiesChristian, Muslim, and othersprotested against tyranny. In "Crackdown," "Militarization," and "Living War," interviewees describe the regime's efforts at "put[ting] sects against each other and turn[ing] everything into a toxic environment," while one speaks frankly of how all the government-sanctioned killing transformed even the most peaceful Muslim citizens into "what we call jihadists and you [Americans] call terrorists." In "Flight," people talk about leaving loved ones behind in seeking asylum in the West. Some tell stories that end in success, others of lives lived "without dignity." Pearlman's book is not only important because it puts names to suffering, but also because it reminds readersespecially in the final segment, "Reflections"that in the Syrian conflict, "there is no right or wrong," only problematic "shades of gray." A poignant and humane collection. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Between 2012 and 2016, Northwestern University professor Pearlman (Occupied Voices: Stories of Loss and Longing from the Second Intifada, 2003) spoke with hundreds of displaced Syrians. In her introduction to this collection of her interviewees' personal stories, told in their own words, Pearlman gives a valuable overview of recent Syrian history and explains the book's organization. She writes that Syrians are commonly viewed as victims of a catastrophic civil war, refugees to harbor, or radicals to fear, while they are for certain a population that meets with too few opportunities to represent itself. This book is just such an opportunity, and its gathered testimonies, most concise, are immediately gripping, varied, and echoing. We read of a man imprisoned for fleeing his job as a municipal driver after he was forced to bury a young, still-living girl; a revolutionary whose contact list, now that he's changed the names of friends who've been killed, reads Martyr, Martyr, Martyr; and strangers sharing both harrowing journeys and moments of peace. Common among the spare and haunting testimonies of these mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters are the loss and reappearance of hope, humanity, and dreams of new freedom. This powerfully edifying work of witness is essential reading.--Bostrom, Annie Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
THE HOME THAT WAS OUR COUNTRY: A Memoir of Syria, by Alia Malek. (Nation Books, $27.99.) This Syrian-Americanjournalist moved to Damascus in 2011 to renovate a family apartment. Her insightful reporting on the war's effects on the population and her account other grandmother's life create a history of Syria. WE CROSSED A BRIDGE AND IT TREMBLED: Voices From Syria, by Wendy Pearlman. (Custom House/HarperCollins, $24.99.) A politics professor collects accounts of refugees in the Middle East and Europe. She foregrounds the extraordinary heroism of ordinary Syrians, both those who are trapped in the country and those who struggle to make new lives. THE CHANGELING, by Victor LaValle. (Spiegel & Grau, $28.) In this modern-day fairy tale, set in New York City, a young father encounters "the old kind" of evil. The anxieties of modern parenting and the rigors of survival in urban America all have their place in this strange and wonderful new novel. HUNGER: A Memoir of (My) Body, by Roxane Gay. (Harper/HarperCollins, $25.99.) Theessayist and novelisttells how she was gangraped at 12 and subsequently gained weight to protect herself. Her memoir is an intellectually rigorous and deeply moving exploration of the ways trauma, stories and desire construct our reality. HENRY DAVID THOREAU: A Life, by Laura Dassow Walls. (University of Chicago, $35.) This new life of Thoreau, in time for his 200th birthday, paints a moving portrait of a brilliant, complex man. One of the book's pleasures is the way it transports us back to America in the first half of the 19 th century. THE ISLAMIC ENLIGHTENMENT. The Struggle Between Faith and Reason: 1798 to Modern Times, by Christopher de Bellaigue. (Liveright, $35.) This fascinating study of Middle Eastern scholars and political figures who grappled with reform and modernization in the 19 th and 20 th centuries reveals the multiplicity of Muslim identities and loyalties. THERE YOUR HEART LIES, by MaryGordon. (Pantheon, $26.95.) The heroine of this exceptional new novel is a 92-year-old widow who defied her wealthy Catholic family to become a nurse during the Spanish Civil War. In the present, the woman forms abond with her granddaughter, who has come to live with her. THE GREAT NADAR: The Man Behind the Camera, by Adam Begley. (Tim Duggan, $28.) This biography of Félix Tournachon, known as Nadar, a 19th-century French photographer who was one of the art's greatest portraitists, is the first to appear in English. QUIET UNTIL THE THAW, by Alexandra Fuller. (Penguin Press, $25.) This ardent and original novel dives deep into Lakota culture and history. Many of the events it describes are rooted in history, and it culminates in the 1973 siege at Wounded Knee. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Library Journal Review
As she did for Palestinians in Occupied Voices, Pearlman (political science, Northwestern Univ.) again gives agency to a population under siege, this time to Syrians. Fluency in Arabic provides Pearlman direct access to hundreds of Syrian men, women, and children of varied social, political, and spiritual backgrounds, those who stayed, and those who fled. Following Pearlman's meticulous introduction rich in contextual history are eight sections tracing the unfolding of the Syrian Revolution through those who witnessed and survived. Erin Bennett, Assaf Cohen, and Susan Nezami take turns voicing Pearlman's subjects; while a multiperson cast should be enhancing, narrators occasionally falter when mismatched to the diversity of the 87 speakers. Cohen, for example, sounds too youthful to articulate older men's experiences convincingly. VERDICT Delivery seems insignificant to the gravity of understanding and acknowledging these searing, remarkable, adamant voices; libraries should consider offering this work in multiple formats to encourage accessibility to all audiences. ["A heartbreaking, human, and necessary book. Recommended for anyone who wishes to better understand the Syrian conflict": LJ 5/1/17 review of the Custom House hc.]-Terry Hong, -Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.