This collection of texts was commissioned and published by The Guardian, on September 12th 2015. Photo credit: Ed Alcock, MYOP Diffusion, The Guardian,
The refugee crisis, though long in the news, has suddenly captured the world’s attention. But what are the underlying causes, and what should individuals and governments do to help? Samar Yazbek responded (below) – along with Orhan Pamuk, Arundhati Roy, Elif Shafak, Ahdaf Soueif, Pankaj Mishra,

By Barry Andrews, for Irish Times, August 2, 2015
Barry Andrews of Goal salutes an eloquent, gripping and harrowing account by an incredibly brave Syrian of her country’s decline into barbarism.
The war in Syria is in its fifth year and it is estimated that 230,000 people have died in the conflict. This book is an eloquent, gripping and harrowing account of the country’s decline into barbarism by an incredibly brave Syrian.

Review by The Press & Journal, July 29th, 2015
The Crossing documents [Yazbek’s] three return visits to Syria between 2012 and 2013. This was a period during which the Syrian people were desperately fighting for survival, both against the Assad regime and the brutal and unforgiving force of emerging Jihadist groups.

A review by Roula Khalaf, for the Financial Times, July 17, 2015
Samar Yazbek is no ordinary Syrian dissident. Brave, rebellious and passionate in her advocacy of democratic change, she was born into the Alawite sect, the minority to which the Assad clan belongs. Branded as a traitor by Assad loyalists, this novelist, journalist and screenwriter has become a chronicler of the civil war that ravages a country now trapped between a brutal but resilient regime and an equally vicious jihadi insurgency.
In The Crossing, Yazbek recounts her trips back to the ruins …

The Economist, 11 July 2015
FEW dispute that the war in Syria is a tragedy. But the question of what people are fighting about has been bitterly contested since the crisis broke out in 2011. Among many narratives, some see it as a battle of jihadist rebels, including Islamic State, against the nominally secular Assad regime. Others view it as a regional sectarian war between Muslims, fuelled by the proxy conflict between Iran’s Shia rulers on one side and on the other the Sunni states of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar.

“Troops snatched young boys from their mothers’ arms and ‘tore them apart with bullets’: New book reveals the harrowing fate of Syrians trapped living under President Assad and the butchers of ISIS”
By Imogene Calderwood, for MailOnline, July 8th, 2015
Photo credit: Samar Yazbek
The grim reality of life in Syria is told through the eyes of the down-trodden and oppressed refugees living there in a harrowing new book.
Syrian journalist Samar Yazbek has told how people are trapped between ISIS barbarians and president Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime live in constant fear of beheadings …