{"title":"Kassem Eid","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"my-country-book-kassem-eid-9781408895092","title":"My Country","description":"An unforgettable memoir of growing up in Syria under al-Assad's regime, surviving a gas attack, and rallying worldwide support to break the siege of cities across the country, with a foreword by Janine di Giovanni  Chosen for the Big Issue's Best Summer Non-fiction 2018  Born to Palestinian refugees, Kassem Eid grew up in the small town of Moadamiya on the outskirts of the ancient city of Damascus. The streets that he and his many siblings played on were perfumed with jasmine. A precocious child, he excelled at school, and had a natural gift for languages. But it didn’t take long for Kassem to realise that he was treated differently at school because of his family’s resistance to the brutal government regime.    When Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father in 2000, hopes that he would ease its severity were swiftly crushed. When the 2011 Arab Spring protests in Syria were met with extreme violence, it was yet another blow – and as Kassem reached young adulthood, life in Syria became increasingly precarious, as the country spiralled into civil war.   Then, on 21 August 2013, Kassem nearly died in a sarin gas attack that killed hundreds of civilians. Later that day, he would pick up a gun for the first time, to join the Free Syrian Army as they fought government forces. For Kassem, this marked the moment that he and his country changed forever.    A searing account of oppression, war, survival and escape, My Country is both a brave and deeply felt memoir of one man’s life, as well as a compelling indictment of a world that turned its face away as a nation fell apart.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49529644777745,"sku":"GOR009316327","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50269881073937,"sku":"GOR011313395","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1408895099.jpg?v=1750713727"},{"product_id":"my-country-book-kassem-eid-9781408895139","title":"My Country","description":"_______________  ‘Powerful … A humbling and important first-hand account of a brutal civil war in which as many as 500,000 people have died’ - Guardian  ‘A memoir of resistance and survival unique in the annals of modern war … If the shedding of blood can be beautiful in words, he makes it so’ - Wall Street Journal  'A valuable perspective absent from much of what has already been written on Syria ... An epic view of what Syria was and has become' - Arab Weekly _______________  Born to Palestinian refugees, Kassem Eid grew up in the small town of Moadamiya on the outskirts of the ancient city of Damascus, playing in streets perfumed with jasmine. But it didn’t take long for Kassem to realise that he was treated differently at school because of his family’s resistance to the brutal government regime. When Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father in 2000, hopes that things might change for the better were swiftly crushed. When the 2011 Arab Spring protests in Syria were met with extreme violence, it was yet another blow – and as Kassem reached young adulthood, the country spiralled into civil war.   Then, on 21 August 2013, Kassem nearly died in a sarin gas attack that killed hundreds of civilians. Later that day, he would pick up a gun for the first time, to join the Free Syrian Army as they fought government forces. For Kassem, this marked the moment that he and his country changed forever - even as the rest of the world turned its face away. _______________  'A remarkably unified picture of the realities of life since 1970 in the Syria of the Assads … shows, unambiguously, precisely what the Assad government seeks to conceal' - Times Literary Supplement  'A touching tale, this humanises the story of war when often all we want to do is look away' - Metro, The best new books by BME authors you’ll be reading this year  'Eid’s story is one of hope giving way to fear and finally betrayal, a narrative of one of this century’s darkest episodes, a necessary perspective, made more prescient because it is personal' - The National  'Gripping, hauntingly raw, and a testament to his resilience' - The Intercept  'Powerful … Tightly-focused … A first-person, eyewitness account written with alternating love and fury' - Prospect","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49556455620881,"sku":"GOR009895979","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49659753758993,"sku":"GOR013683076","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49733956337937,"sku":"NGR9781408895139","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51509889564945,"sku":"GOR012722216","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1408895137.jpg?v=1751337498"},{"product_id":"my-country-book-kassem-eid-9781635572841","title":"My Country","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eKassem Eid survived arrest in al-Assad's regime, a chemical weapons attack that shocked the world, and the siege of a city where he fought with the Syrian rebel army. This is his story--a unique and powerfully moving testimony for our times, with a foreword by Janine di Giovanni.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn August 21, 2013, Kassem Eid nearly died in a sarin gas attack in the town of Moadamiya. At least 1,500 people were killed. Later that day, he was hit by a mortar while helping the Free Syrian Army fight government forces. He survived that, too. But his entire world--friends, neighbors, family, everything he knew--had been devastated beyond repair.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEid recalls moving to Moadamiya in 1989, at the age of three. The streets where he and his eleven siblings played were fragrant with jasmine. But he soon realized that he was treated differently at school because of his family's Palestinian immigrant origins, and their resistance to the brutal regime. When Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father in 2000, hopes that he would ease the state's severity were swiftly crushed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe unprecedented scope of this brave, deeply felt memoir makes it unique in the body of literature to emerge from the Syrian civil war. Eid illuminates the realities of growing up in a corrupt dictatorship; the strictures of living under siege; the impact of unspeakable violence; and how, at extraordinary personal risk, he drew worldwide attention to the assault on cities across Syria. This is a searing account of oppression, war, grit, and escape, and a heartbreaking love letter to a world lost forever.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":52567269867793,"sku":"CIN1635572843A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53696275579153,"sku":"CIN1635572843G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781635572841.jpg?v=1760772769"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-kassem-eid.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}