Product Description 
FINALIST FOR THE 2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE 
The new novel Planet Of Clay gives a haunting and unflinching look at the horrors of war - the bombing, the starvation, the fear - all seen through the eyes of Rima, a young girl with a vibrant imagination."―NPR 
“Planet of Clay is a devastating novel about human resilience and fragility in a time of war.”―Foreword Reviews, starred review 
Rima, a young girl from Damascus, longs to walk, to be free to follow the will of her feet, but instead is perpetually constrained. Rima finds refuge in a fantasy world full of colored crayons, secret planets, and The Little Prince, reciting passages of the Qur’an like a mantra as everything and everyone around her is blown to bits. Since Rima hardly ever speaks, people think she’s crazy, but she is no fool―the madness is in the battered city around her. One day while taking a bus through Damascus, a soldier opens fire and her mother is killed. Rima, wounded, is taken to a military hospital before her brother leads her to the besieged area of Ghouta―where, between bombings, she writes her story. In Planet of Clay, Samar Yazbek offers a surreal depiction of the horrors taking place in Syria, in vivid and poetic language and with a sharp eye for detail and beauty. 
 Review 
FINALIST FOR THE 2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN TRANSLATED LITERATURE 
Praise for Samar Yazbek 
“One of Syria’s most gifted novelists.” ―CNN 
“Yazbek’s is the urgent task of showing the world what is happening. Thanks to her, we can read about the appalling things that go on in secret, underground places.” ―The Guardian 
Praise for Planet of Clay 
"Samar Yazbek’s Planet of Clay is a lyrical and moving portrait of Rima, a young neurodivergent girl living through the horrors of the Syrian civil war. Rima yearns to be free but is always, quite literally, tied to her mother, her brother, his friend, the bed, the wall, even as everyone runs around her, like Yazbek's fitting stream-of-consciousness prose, as bombs explode and gunfire blasts and the city collapses. This extraordinary translation by Leri Price conjures Rima’s own secret planets, a world of colors, and another life."―National Book Awards Judges Citation 
 “Wrenching … offers a remarkable account of wartime despair.” ―Publishers Weekly 
“Planet of Clay gives a haunting and unflinching look at the horrors of war―the bombing, the starvation, the fear―all seen through the eyes of Rima, a young girl with a vibrant imagination.” ―NPR 
“Planet of Clay is a devastating novel about human resilience and fragility in a time of war.” ―Foreword Reviews, starred review 
“The young, mute narrator of this compassionate novel becomes a poignant emblem of the Syrian women confined by war…a bold portrayal of besieged people.” ―The Observer 
“Rima is a fantastic character.” ―Kirkus Reviews 
“The Syrian writer Samar Yazbek evokes the horror of civil war with gripping lucidity in her novel Planet of Clay.” ―Le Monde 
“With the brazenness typical of her recent work, Samar Yazbek immerses us in the horror of the Syrian conflict, and the way it resonates in the flesh and minds of those who are living it. It is through the women whom the author has met on the ground at certain moments throughout this war that she describes the capacity for resistance in the face of atrocity.” ―Libération 
“An ingenious character and a literary approach on the verge of the unimaginable. Samar Yazbek's novel is brave on many levels.” ―Göteborgs-Posten“ 
Planet of Clayis a deeply original, almost surreal fantasia, written in a simple, clear style. But the surrealistic stroke is raised, because the evil and the suffering surrounding Rima are real to such a great extent … A novel like 
Planet of Clay filters through all our conscious and unconscious blinkers.” 
―Arbetarbladet\n“We others can only read―and cry.” ―Kristeligt Dagblad 
“The book left this reader very touched, beyond the cruel reality it describes, because of Yazbek’s sen

Planet of Clay

Literature & Fiction

Yazbek, Samar

Literary

World Editions

In this new novel by Syria's most prominent writer of the National Book Award Finalist Planet of Clay, a wounded nineteen-year-old soldier in the Syrian Army remembers his life lived in the traditional Alawite way.&nbsp; "The potent latest from Yazbek (Planet of Clay) weighs the consequences of the Syrian civil war after a 19-year-old soldier, Ali, survives his patrol station's 2013 bombing in the Lattakia mountains.This slim novel packs a punch."&nbsp;--Publishers Weekly &nbsp;Ali, a nineteen-year-old soldier in the Syrian army, lies on the ground beneath a tree. He sees a body being lowered into a hole--is this his funeral? There was that sudden explosion, wasn't there ... While trying to understand the extend of the damage, Ali works his way closer to the tree. His ultimate desire is to fly up to one of its branches, to safety. Through rich vignettes of Ali's memories, we uncover the hardships of his traditional Syrian Alawite village, but also the richness and beauty of its cultural and religious heritage. Yazbek here explores the secrets of the Alawite faith and its relationship to nature and the elements in a tight poetic novel dense with life and hope and love.

Where the Wind Calls Home

The Crossing: My Journey to the Shattered Heart of Syria

Samar Yazbek was well-known in her native Syria as a writer and a journalist but, in 2011, she fell foul of the Assad regime and was forced to flee. Since then, determined to bear witness to the suffering of her people, she bravely revisited her homeland by squeezing through a hole in the fence on the Turkish border. In The Crossing, she testifies to the appalling reality that is Syria today. From the first innocent demonstrations for democracy, through the beginnings of the Free Syrian Army, to the arrival of ISIS, she offers remarkable snapshots of soldiers, children, and ordinary men and women simply trying to stay alive. Some of these stories are of hardship and brutality that is hard to bear, but she also gives testimony to touches of humanity along the way: how people live under the gaze of a sniper, how principled young men try to resist orders from their military superiors, how children cope in bunkers. . . Yazbek's portraits of life in Syria are very real, and her prose, luminous. The Crossing is undoubtedly both an important historical document and a work of literature.

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Ebury Press

Samar Yazbek was well-known in her native Syria as a writer and a journalist but, in 2011, she fell foul of the Assad regime and was forced to flee. Since then, determined to bear witness to the suffering of her people, she revisited her homeland by squeezing through a hole in the fence on the Turkish border. Here she testifies to the appalling reality that is Syria today. From the first innocent demonstrations for democracy, through the beginnings of the Free Syrian Army, to the arrival of ISIS, she offers remarkable snapshots of soldiers, children, ordinary men and women simply trying to stay alive. Some of these stories are of hardship and brutality that is hard to bear, but she also gives testimony to touches of humanity along the way: how people live under the gaze of a sniper, how principled young men try to resist orders from their military superiors, how children cope in bunkers. Yazbek's portraits of life in Syria are very real, and her prose, luminous. The Crossing is undoubtedly both an important historical document and a work of literature.

In the dark of night, Hanan al-Hashimi awakens from a nightmare, confused and shaken. Roaming the house in search of some reassurance, she is drawn towards the streak of light under her husband's bedroom door. Little does she know that the beckoning glow will turn her life on its head...

Cinnamon

Contemporary

Haus Publishing

A well-known novelist and journalist from the coastal city of Jableh, Samar Yazbek witnessed the beginning four months of the uprising first-hand and actively participated in a variety of public actions and budding social movements. Throughout this period she kept a diary of personal reflections on, and observations of, this historic time. Because of the outspoken views she published in print and online, Yazbek quickly attracted the attention and fury of the regime, vicious rumours started to spread about her disloyalty to the homeland and the Alawite community to which she belongs. The lyrical narrative describes her struggle to protect herself and her young daughter, even as her activism propels her into a horrifying labyrinth of insecurity after she is forced into living on the run and detained multiple times, excluded from the Alawite community and renounced by her family, her hometown and even her childhood friends. With rare empathy and journalistic prowess Samar Yazbek compiled oral testimonies from ordinary Syrians all over the country. Filled with snapshots of exhilarating hope and horrifying atrocities, she offers us a wholly unique perspective on the Syrian uprising. Hers is a modest yet powerful testament to the strength and commitment of countless unnamed Syrians who have united to fight for their freedom. These diaries will inspire all those who read them, and challenge the world to look anew at the trials and tribulations of the Syrian uprising.

A Woman in the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution

Community & Culture

La demeure du vent

Genre Fiction

Stock

Schrei nach Freiheit: Bericht aus dem Inneren der syrischen Revolution

History

Nagel & Kimche

Die Fremde im Spiegel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Yazbek, Samar. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Yazbek, Samar