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The home that was our country : a memoir of Syria / Alia Malek.

by Malek, Alia, 1974-

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Nation Books, [2017]

Malek, Alia, 1974- -- Family.

Damascus (Syria) -- Biography.

Damascus (Syria) -- History.

Syria -- History.

9781568585321 (hc.)

xvi, 334 pages : illustrations, map ; 25 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-334).

Leaving -- Generations. Origins ; Sheika ; Adrift ; Pack your bags and go ; Locked in -- Locked out. Anywhere but here ; No-man's-land ; They did it to themselves -- In the eye of the belly. Return ; Tahrir Squares ; Psychodrame ; Fatherland ; In the cards ; Routine ; Suspicion ; Unraveling ; Power ; Displaced ; Gone -- Bound.

"At the Arab Spring's hopeful start, Alia Malek returned to Damascus to reclaim her grandmother's apartment, which had been lost to her family since Hafez al-Assad came to power in 1970. Its loss was central to her parent's decision to make their lives in America. In chronicling the people who lived in the Tahaan building, past and present, Alia portrays the Syrians-the Muslims, Christians, Jews, Armenians, and Kurds-who worked, loved, and suffered in close quarters, mirroring the political shifts in their country. Restoring her family's home as the country comes apart, she learns how to speak the coded language of oppression that exists in a dictatorship, while privately confronting her own fears about Syria's future. The Home That Was Our Country is a deeply researched, personal journey that shines a delicate but piercing light on Syrian history, society, and politics. Teeming with insights, the narrative weaves acute political analysis with a century of intimate family history, ultimately delivering an unforgettable portrait of the Syria that is being erased"-- Publisher's description.

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