In this event, the Syrian-British Writers Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leila Al-Shami will discuss their groundbreaking new book Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War, which Yasser Munif calls "by far the best account of the Syrian uprising yet" and Hassan Hassan says is "poised to become the definitive book not only on the continuing Syrian conflict but on the country and its society as a whole."
With chapters focusing on ISIS and Islamism, regional geopolitics, the new grassroots revolutionary organisations, and the worst refugee crisis since World War Two, Burning Country is a vivid and groundbreaking look at a modern-day political and humanitarian nightmare.
Burning Country explores the horrific and complicated reality of life in present-day Syria with unprecedented detail and sophistication, drawing on new first-hand testimonies from opposition fighters, exiles lost in an archipelago of refugee camps, and courageous human rights activists among many others. These stories are expertly interwoven with a trenchant analysis of the brutalisation of the conflict and the militarisation of the uprising, of the rise of the Islamists and sectarian warfare, and the role of governments in Syria and elsewhere in exacerbating those violent processes.
Robin Yassin-Kassab is a Syrian-British writer and a regular media commentator on Syria and the Middle East. He is the author of the novel The Road from Damascus and a contributor to the anthology Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline. He writes frequently for The Guardian and The National and is a co-editor of the blog PULSE.
Leila Al-Shami has worked with the human rights movement in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East. She is a blogger and was a founding member of Tahrir-ICN, a network that aimed to connect anti-authoritarian struggles across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.
Cost : Free and open to the public.
JohannaRomero
(310) 825-1181
romero@international.ucla.edu Click
here for event website.
Sponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies