The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria - Softcover

Di Giovanni, Janine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1408851105 ISBN 13: 9781408851104

Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks, 2017

Synopsis

Winner of the Hay Festival Award for Prose
Winner of the 2016 IWMF Courage in Journalism Award
Shortlisted for the New York Public Library's Helen Bernstein Excellence in Journalism Award
Shortlisted for the 2017 Moore Prize for Non-Fiction Literature

In May of 2012, Janine di Giovanni travelled to Syria, marking the beginning of a long relationship with the country, as she began reporting from both sides of the conflict, witnessing its descent into one of the most brutal, internecine conflicts in recent history. Drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught up in the fighting, Syria came to consume her every moment, her every emotion.

Speaking to those directly involved in the war, di Giovanni relays the personal stories of rebel fighters thrown in jail at the least provocation; of children and families forced to watch loved ones taken and killed by regime forces with dubious justifications; and the stories of the elite, holding pool parties in Damascus hotels, trying to deny the human consequences of the nearby shelling.

Delivered with passion, fearlessness and sensitivity, The Morning They Came for Us is an unflinching account of a nation on the brink of disintegration, charting an apocalyptic but at times tender story of life in a jihadist war - and an unforgettable testament to human resilience in the face of devastating, unimaginable horrors.

About this title

Review:

At once necessary, difficult and elating. Her reporting from the Syrian revolution and war is clear-eyed and engaged in the best sense - engaged in the human realm rather than the abstractly political. . . . Such reporters as Giovanni, who not only visit but also live (and often die) through wars not their own, are heroic (Robin Yassin-Kassab Guardian)

Devastating . . . . Like the work of the Belarussian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich, Ms. di Giovanni's book gives voice to ordinary people living through a dark time in history ... Ms. di Giovanni writes here with urgency and anguish ... Her testimony is contained here in this searing and necessary book (Michiko Kakutani New York Times)

Di Giovanni writes vividly and we see with her how Damascene supporters of Assad drift away as the brutality of his rule became impossible to deny ... Di Giovanni explains to us how horrible it all really is (Evening Standard)

Precisely observed. The strength of the writing comes out in the more subtle moments. Di Giovanni's [book] is full of passion and self-questioning (Roger Boyes The Times)

This is a desperately sad book but it's a vital read ... **** (Mail on Sunday)

Di Giovanni is responsible for some of the most poetic reportage from Syria . Her writing stays with you (New Statesman)

Heart-breaking . Di Giovanni confronts the nightmarish subject of sexual violence as a means of terrifying prisoners early in this extremely harrowing book. Unsensational but unsparing (Observer)

Janine di Giovanni has described war in a way that almost makes me think it never needs to be described again (Sebastian Junger)

One of our generations finest foreign correspondents (Daily Telegraph)

Few writers can match her evocations of individual suffering in wartime (Newsweek)

Book Description:

A searing, intimate account of the conflict in Syria by someone uniquely equipped to tell the story from the inside, winner of the Hay Festival Award for Prose 2016 and the 2016 IWMF Courage in Journalism Award

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1408851105
• ISBN 13: 9781408851104
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224