My Road from Damascus: A Memoir by Jamal Saeed (English) Paperback Book

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Humorous, witty, horrific, and poetic, Jamal Saeed's story is Syria's story: surviving 12 years in brutal military prisons, an enchanted childhood, his loves, Syria's deadly upheavals, and his family's escape.

FORMATPaperback LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Publisher Description

Humorous, witty, horrific, and poetic, Jamal Saeed's story is Syria's story: surviving 12 years in brutal military prisons, an enchanted childhood, his loves, Syria's deadly upheavals, and his family's escape.An extraordinary account of survival in Syria's most notorious military prisons that is written with "brutal clarity — and yet, there is a poetic quality to the telling." — Frances Itani, award-winning author of Deafening and Remembering the BonesJamal Saeed arrived as a refugee in Canada in 2016. In his native Syria, as a young man, his writing pushed both social and political norms. For this reason, as well as his opposition to the regimes of the al-Assads, he was imprisoned on three occasions for a total of 12 years. In each instance, he was held without formal charge and without judicial process.My Road from Damascus not only tells the story of Saeed's severe years in Syria's most notorious military prisons but also his life during the country's dramatic changes. Saeed chronicles modern Syria from the 1950s right up to his escape to Canada in 2016, recounting its descent from a country of potential to a pawn of cynical and corrupt powers. He paints a picture of village life, his youthful love affairs, his rebellion as a young Marxist, and his evolution into a free thinker, living in hiding as a teenager for 30 months while being hunted by the secret police. He recalls his brutal prison years, his final release, and his family's harrowing escape to Canada.While many prison memoirs focus on the cruelty of incarceration, My Road from Damascus offers a tapestry of Saeed's whole life. It looks squarely at brutality but also at beauty and poetry, hope and love.

Author Biography

Jamal Saeed spent 12 years as a prisoner of conscience in Syria before being invited to Canada in 2016. He continues to raise awareness about Syria's ongoing civil war and humanitarian crisis through his work as an activist, editor, visual artist, and author. He lives in Kingston, ON.

Review

"This riveting memoir of a Syrian dissident, featuring an outstanding, often musical performance, deserves comparisons to Viktor Frank's Man's Search for Meaning in its ability to find the beauty of human connection in utterly inhumane conditions." -- Library Journal Audio Book Review"Written in poetic prose in which the reader can trace the cadence of Saeed's native Arabic -- and which illustrates why Syrian philosopher Antun Maqdisi once likened Saeed to Maupassant -- My Road from Damascus explains that love and loss are intertwined and shows how the former can help us withstand the latter." --Quill & Quire"This memoir tells not only of his time in Syria's most brutal military prisons but of village life, youth, love, poetry, and a country and society warped from its potential." -- Quill & Quire"A lyrical, extremely rich narrative of loss, memory, and trauma." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Long Description

Humorous, witty, horrific, and poetic, Jamal Saeed's story is Syria's story: surviving 12 years in brutal military prisons, an enchanted childhood, his loves, Syria's deadly upheavals, and his family's escape. An extraordinary account of survival in Syria's most notorious military prisons that is written with "brutal clarity -- and yet, there is a poetic quality to the telling." -- Frances Itani, award-winning author of Deafening and Remembering the Bones Jamal Saeed arrived as a refugee in Canada in 2016. In his native Syria, as a young man, his writing pushed both social and political norms. For this reason, as well as his opposition to the regimes of the al-Assads, he was imprisoned on three occasions for a total of 12 years. In each instance, he was held without formal charge and without judicial process. My Road from Damascus not only tells the story of Saeed's severe years in Syria's most notorious military prisons but also his life during the country's dramatic changes. Saeed chronicles modern Syria from the 1950s right up to his escape to Canada in 2016, recounting its descent from a country of potential to a pawn of cynical and corrupt powers. He paints a picture of village life, his youthful love affairs, his rebellion as a young Marxist, and his evolution into a free thinker, living in hiding as a teenager for 30 months while being hunted by the secret police. He recalls his brutal prison years, his final release, and his family's harrowing escape to Canada. While many prison memoirs focus on the cruelty of incarceration, My Road from Damascus offers a tapestry of Saeed's whole life. It looks squarely at brutality but also at beauty and poetry, hope and love.

Review Quote

"Jamal writes with brutal clarity -- and yet, there is a poetic quality to the telling. He manages to hold in balance the idyllic memories of growing up in a land he loves, alongside his experiences inside Syrian prisons, where he peels back the dark walls and allows us to witness and pay heed to the unthinkable." -- Frances Itani

Excerpt from Book

Waiting to be executed, I remember as clearly as if I could see them, many of the other people I'd known in different Syrian towns: children, men, and women, old and young; relatives, friends, and those who'd shared in the painful experiences of prison; interrogators out of control in the interrogation branch in Latakia; doomsday in cellblock seven in the military's special investigation branch in Damascus; prisoners of conscience, murderers, thieves, drug dealers, cats, rats, and police in al-Qala'a prison; bodies exhausted by fear, faces distorted by terror, souls brutalized by humiliation in Tadmur prison. The faces of women I'd loved and cried over when they left, and those of the ones who loved me and who cried when I left. Informers for the intelligence services who visited me diligently after my release on the pretext of asking after my health. A great gathering of people, birds, beasts, with their features crystal clear; springs, rivers, different places by the sea, rough tracks, paved roads, and even familiar rocky outcrops. I am completely absorbed by this throng of images, smells, and the sounds my memory yields, sharper and more delicate than I would have believed possible, and in that moment I really forget where I am. I don't think about how my brazen answers to the officer had just slammed the door on my future. I am devouring life avidly as if it only existed in the past when the door of the interrogation room opens and footsteps approach. I brace myself for the end, but nothing. If only I could move my hand, I would pull the blindfold away from my eyes. Has the soldier who entered the room changed his mind and left again? Or is he standing close to me this very second? I picture the room full of instruments of torture: an old tire, electric cables, clubs, a German chair, water, and a packet of pins on the metal table where the interrogator usually sat. Big strong torturers no more than twenty-five years old will show up at any moment... The door opens again and I hear the sound of something being moved on a metal table. The door shuts again. Have they taken something out of the room? The sound of footsteps in the corridor. People hurrying, and then the sound of shouting. The desperate voice of a man begging his torturers to stop beating him, a wailing sound in which pain, hope, and impotence mingle. I know that wailing well. I'd heard it many times, sometimes coming out of my own mouth. Bassam once said to me that prison was the practice of grief, wailing, anticipation, and masturbation. Bassam killed himself after he came out of prison. Bassam's voice resembled that of the man who continues to cry out in the next room: "For the sake of Allah, stop!"

Description for Sales People

Sales and Market Bullets A HAUNTING STORY: From an enchanted childhood in Syria to cruel years in brutal military prisons to his family's escape -- Jamal Saeed's unputdownable story is both horrifying and beautifully told. AN ONGOING CRISIS: Saeed's story is Syria's story. The battle for control and the ongoing refugee crisis are still making headlines. A PROPULSIVE NARRATIVE, PERFECT FOR BOOK CLUB DISCUSSIONS: At times heartbreaking, uplifting, and even funny, Saeed is a keen observer and paints a colorful picture of village life, his family, and the superstitions of many of their neighbors, then provides insight into his political awakening and what it was like to live in hiding from the secret police for over two years. READING DISCUSSION GUIDE: Will be made available on ECW's website. STRONG INTEREST IN STORIES THAT PERSONALIZE THE POLITICAL: Books like My Promised Land by Ari Shavit, Prisoner by Jason Rezaian, and Solitary by Albert Woodfox have shown that plenty of readers are exploring political issues through personal stories. My Road from Damascus will help readers to understand the power structures and corruption in Syria through Saeed's story. AWARD WINNING AUTHOR: Jamal Saeed's YA book, Yara's Spring , received high praise and many award wins and nominations, including: Kirkus Best Books List 2020 (Winner), Best Bets List, Top Ten, Ontario Library Association 2021 (Winner), Best Books for Kids & Teens, *starred selection, Canadian Children's Book Centre 2021(Winner), Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices 2021 2021 (Winner), Red Cedar Book Award 2021 (Nominated), Red Maple Award, OLA 2021 (Nominated), Next Generation INDIE Book Award 2021 (Shortlist), Indiana Young Hoosier Book Awards 2022 (Nominated). Audience Readers who are tuned into international news and politics People interested in memoirs, especially memoirs that give insight into real events (rather than a personal celebrity memoir, for example) Listeners of CBC's Sunday Magazine, NPR, etc.

Details ISBN1770416218 Author Jamal Saeed Short Title My Road from Damascus Pages 400 Language English Year 2022 ISBN-10 1770416218 ISBN-13 9781770416215 Format Paperback Subtitle A Memoir Publisher ECW Press,Canada Imprint ECW Press,Canada Place of Publication Montreal Country of Publication Canada UK Release Date 2022-11-03 DEWEY 956.91042092 Audience General AU Release Date 2022-10-03 Publication Date 2022-11-03 We've got this

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