The book collectors : a band of Syrian rebels and the stories that carried them through a war / Delphine Minoui ; translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud.
Material type:
TextLanguage: English Original language: French Publisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020Edition: First American editionDescription: 197 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 20 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780374115166
- 0374115168
- Band of Syrian rebels and the stories that carried them through a war
- Passeurs de livres de Daraya. English
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | NonFiction | 027.0569 M666 | Available | 33111010426001 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR
"An urgent and compelling account of great bravery and passion." --Susan Orlean
Award-winning journalist Delphine Minoui recounts the true story of a band of young rebels, a besieged Syrian town, and an underground library built from the rubble of war
Reading is an act of resistance.
Daraya is a town outside Damascus, the very spot where the Syrian Civil War began. Long a site of peaceful
resistance to the Assad regimes, Daraya fell under siege in 2012. For four years, no one entered or left, and aid was blocked. Every single day, bombs fell on this place--a place of homes and families, schools and children, now emptied and broken into bits.
And then a group searching for survivors stumbled upon a cache of books in the rubble. In a week, they had six thousand volumes; in a month, fifteen thousand. A sanctuary was born: a library where people could escape the blockade, a paper fortress to protect their humanity.
The library offered a marvelous range of books--from Arabic poetry to American self-help, Shakespearean plays to stories of war in other times and places. The visitors shared photos and tales of their lives before the war, planned how to build a democracy, and tended the roots of their community despite shell-shocked soil.
In the midst of the siege, the journalist Delphine Minoui tracked down one of the library's founders, twenty-three-year-old Ahmad. Over text messages, WhatsApp, and Facebook, Minoui came to know the young men who gathered in the library, exchanged ideas, learned English, and imagined how to shape the future, even as bombs kept falling from above. By telling their stories, Minoui makes a far-off, complicated war immediate and reveals these young men to be everyday heroes as inspiring as the books they read. The Book Collectors is a testament to their bravery and a celebration of the power of words.
"Originally published in French in 2018 by Éditions du Seuil, France, as 'Les passeurs de livres de Daraya.' "
"An extraordinary account of a band of young men in a besieged Damascan suburb who find books in the rubble and create a secret library"-- Provided by publisher.
Long a site of peaceful resistance to the Assad regimes, Daraya fell under siege in 2012. For four years no one entered or left, and aid was blocked. Bombs fell on this place of homes and families. A group searching for survivors stumbled upon a cache of books; in a week they had six thousand volumes; in a month fifteen thousand. A sanctuary was born: a library to escape the blockade, offering Arabic poetry, American self-help, Shakespearean plays and more. Over text messages, Minoui came to know the young men who gathered in the library, exchanged ideas, learned English, and imagined how to shape the future, even as bombs kept falling from above. -- adapted from jacket