A review by Margot Djikgraaf, for NRC Handelsblad, April 22, 2015
“Characters are staged at a breakneck pace, disappear and reappear, while previously described events come along again, as if in a spiral that will make the reader lose grip of the story, and feeling the ground fall from under her feet. This is exactly Khalifa’s purpose. This is the life of Aleppo’s residents”

For those new to the reading groups, And Other Stories is a fantastic independent UK publisher, and one way they select fiction to translate and publish is through reading groups. The groups help AOS get feedback from savvy readers, by reading as-of-yet untranslated novels, discussing them online and in person, and helping AOS pick what to publish.
 
One great part about the group is that it’s open to people who read in Arabic and people who don’t.
 
 
 
The And Other Stories Arabic reading group is back for a second round this winter, …

“Overall, if you can muster the patience, this novel will teach you some important things”

While the action seems to be torn out of today’s newspapers, it is actually set in the late 1970s and early 1980s when a rebellion against the current leader’s father was brutally suppressed. In chilling terms, the narrator describes her embrace of fanaticism and her rejection of the middle ground.

Add this one to the growing list of thought-provoking novels about Muslim women caught in the crossfire of politics and personal life.

The Syrian writer Khalid Khalifa moves inside Damascus from one neighborhood to another, moving in what he describes as “bourgeois displacement”. The writer says he doesn’t believe he is entitled to the honor of saying he shares the suffering of real displacement in refugees camps.