Samar Yazbek/Photo: Manaf Azzam

By Patricia Caso/January 8, 2013

For nearly two  years, we’ve been watching the incredulous events unfold in the Syrian revolt against the Assad regime.  In the midst of this tragedy is Samar Yazbek, a Syrian novelist, journalist and activist.  She has penned nearly a dozen books including five novels.  Her most recent non-fiction work, A Woman in the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution, chronicles the first four months of the uprising.

“My purpose in writing the book is to deliver the voice of truth and justice.”  Samar Yazbek

Although from the same Alawite sect as President al-Assad, Samar used her celebrity and and savvy with social media to protest the regime.  She participated in peaceful demonstrations publicly and verbally, challenged her country’s leaders, and writes about how she was ultimately disowned by her relatives, arrested, beaten, and had to flee the country.

Her book is an unvarnished and sobering account of what she describes as the abuse and violence against the Syrian people. Through Yasmina Jraissati, her literary agent, I was able to ask Samar about her mission, her motivation, and her eyewitness account of the Syrian uprising…  [Read more…]