Quartet Books Livres

Sabriya portrays life in Damascus in the 1920's. Central to the story is Sabriya's journey to self-knowledge, intertwined with the rise and eclipse of national and feminist awareness during her painful life. The national revolt is crushed by superior foreign power and Sabriya's personal emancipation is stifled by the traditional values of a patriarchal society. Written from the point of view of a young girl passionately committed to the nationalist cause but unable, because of her sex, to take an active part, it seethes with the frustrated energy of the reluctant bystander and vividly expresses the terror of civilians living in a city rocked nightly by explosions.

A fitting tribute to the acerbic wit and incisive commentary of one of Britain's finest post-war journalists.

A follow-up to Attallah's 2018 collection of interviews, this anthology takes in more of his spectacular encounters with the great, the good and the not so good. As with the previous volume, Naim's subjects are, alas, no longer with us.