Samar Yazbek

Reading Around the World: Syria

Reading Around the World: Syria

Sometimes you have an obligation to say it while it’s hot. You encounter a new writer and feel the charge of her work in ways that make you want to drop the façade of the third-person. And so let it begin, here, with a shout from the rooftops:

I have a new hero, and her name is Samar Yazbek.

Literature, or The Place Where History Becomes Immortal

Literature, or The Place Where History Becomes Immortal

Literature reminds us that we should never be afraid to look at something as though we’re witnessing it for the first time, however well we think we know it. This is one reason great books offer endless company and sanctuary. Each expedition into them reveals new vistas: the book becomes more intelligent as we grow alongside it.