Defiance
A Memoir of Awakening, Rebellion, and Survival in Syria
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- 189,00 kr
Publisher Description
'An anthem against patriarchy and authoritarianism everywhere . . . a must-read'
JAVIER ZAMORA, New York Times bestselling author of SOLITO
'Loubna Mrie's story takes my breath away. Defiance is a nail-biting tale of astonishing courage, a coming-of-age story in which one woman risks everything to fight for what she believes' JEANNETTE WALLS, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of THE GLASS CASTLE and HANG THE MOON
'An amazing memoir' SARAH JESSICA PARKER
Every day, Loubna Mrie pledged allegiance to Bashar al-Assad. Her family, part of the Alawite minority that ruled the country, helped bring the Assad family to power. Her father, a formidable businessman with close ties to the regime, similarly ruled their household with absolute authority.
But everything changed in 2011, when the Arab Spring reached Syria and Loubna stumbled into an anti-government protest. What she witnessed - the courage, the blood, the brutality - ignited something in her that would not be extinguished. She joined the resistance, fearlessly proclaiming her Alawite identity to show that unity was possible, and risking her life as a photojournalist documenting the war for Reuters and other outlets. Her defiance would come at a devastating cost: the loss of loved ones, the community that now considered her a traitor, and, ultimately, her country itself. Leaving behind everything she knew, she would have to find a new home within herself.
Defiance is the unforgettable account of one woman's fight for freedom - against a dictator, a father, and the weight of inherited belief. From the streets of Aleppo to exile in New York City, it offers an electrifying portrait of moral courage in a time of unimaginable violence. Told with clarity, fury, and grace, Defiance offers a rare, ground-level portrait of what it means to wake up, to resist, and to become.
'A literary triumph. Every page is marked by blood and tears. It's unforgettable'
LAWRENCE WRIGHT, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of THE LOOMING TOWER and THE HUMAN SCALE
'Profoundly . . . The book is an unforgettable chronicle of the spirit, one that will stay with you long after the final page'
ANAND GOPAL, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of NO GOOD MEN AMONG THE LIVING
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The large-scale tragedies of the Syrian civil war are rendered on an intimate scale in Mrie's plaintive debut. The author grew up in a Syrian family that supported the Baathist dictatorship of Hafez al-Assad and his son Bashar. Her father, Jawdat, was an intelligence official, and her clan was part of the Alawite religious minority that was the regime's base. But when anti-government protests erupted in 2011, a 20-year-old Mrie joined the opposition, documenting the demonstrations as a journalist and ferrying medical supplies to the resistance. She fled to Turkey in 2012 shortly before her mother died under mysterious circumstances, then returned for several reporting trips back to rebel-held areas of Syria, which grew dangerous as Islamic State militants began to dominate these regions. Mrie's narrative charts a struggle with many kinds of oppression: Assad's tyranny, the enmity with which Alawites were treated by the Sunni majority that dominated the rebel movement, and Arab society's pervasive sexism. She captures the chaos of Syria's upheaval with raw immediacy ("I gasp for air, struggling to breathe through the fine, chalklike dust kicked up from the stampede," she writes of soldiers attacking a demonstration), and offers a heartbreaking excavation of the psychic wounds that left her struggling with alcoholism and failed relationships. This haunting account illuminates the human cost of Syria's collapse.
