My Road from Damascus

"A lyrical, extremely rich narrative of loss, memory, and trauma." — STARRED review, Kirkus Reviews

An extraordinary account of survival in Syria's most notorious military prisons that is written with "brutal clarity — and yet, there is a poetic quality to the telling." — Frances Itani, award-winning author of Deafening and Remembering the Bones

Jamal Saeed arrived as a refugee in Canada in 2016. In his native Syria, as a young man, his writing pushed both social and political norms. For this reason, as well as his opposition to the regimes of the al-Assads, he was imprisoned on three occasions for a total of 12 years. In each instance, he was held without formal charge and without judicial process.

My Road from Damascus not only tells the story of Saeed's severe years in Syria's most notorious military prisons but also his life during the country's dramatic changes. Saeed chronicles modern Syria...