By Charles Jaigu, for Le Figaro, March 13, 2016
(…) One must read this remarkable narrative to get rid of the indifference to the crackle of images, and of testimonies heard on the fly. It is not enough to know that terrible events are taking place in the world. A story longer than 140 signs needs to give them form and color.
(…)
Samar Yazbek’s story  is valuable as a literary testimony.  It is also valuable as a geopolitical analysis. It goes from the fog of war, the confusion of fighting, and gradually goes back to the general idea: quite simply, Bachar El Assad is the cause
behind all the evil… To those who… consider that the priority is primarily the fight …

Interview by Christian Makarian for l’Express, Published March 9, 2016
Below are excerpts translated into English.
In a strikingly truthful book, The Crossing (Stock), Samar Yazbek tells the daily atrocities of the war in Syria. She also explores the irreversible mechanisms of ultra-violence…
How do you define yourself facing the dislocation of Syria?
I am a Syrian writer, nothing else. I am a secular, journalist and activist involved with human rights – including the rights of women. I am neither Alawite or Sunni, or Christian, I refuse to be defined by my confession. I am …

Yazbek was featured on La grande librairie last Thursday, guest of Francois Busnel,  along with Amin Maalouf and Erik Orsenna, both of which thought the book was important.

Carla Kweifio-Okai, about The Crossing, for The Guardian, December 2015
The Syrian refugee crisis was the defining story of 2015. For exiled Syrian journalist Samar Yazbek, it was deeply personal and years in the making. In this compelling read, Yazbek weaves her experiences of the civil war with snapshots of the life cycle of the crisis – from early street demonstrations against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, to the multi-faceted conflict we face today.

Olivia Snaije, for Publishing Perspectives, December 2015
The Shell as part of the “top books” of 2015. Snaije says:
“Last but not least, La Coquille, (The Shell) by Moustafa Khalifé, a book I read in French, translated from Arabic, gave me the distinct feeling once I had finished it that I was no longer the same. Masterfully translated by Stéphanie Dujols, this autobiographical novel about 13 years spent in a Syrian prison is devastating and altogether mesmerizing, as terrible as the story is.

By Sonia Dayan-Herzbrun, for En attendant Nadeau, published on February 10, 2016
The American neighbourhood, last novel Jabbour Douaihy, is as a long love letter to Tripoli, Northern Lebanese city where the author spent much of his childhood and where he teaches French literature …
This beautiful novel, of classical style with the fate of its characters intersecting and intertwining, with no downtimes, is a pleasurable and emotional read.

This beautiful novel, of classical style with the fate of its characters intersecting and intertwining, with no downtimes, is a pleasurable and emotional read. …