{"title":"Jordan Ritter Conn","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"road-from-raqqa-book-jordan-ritter-conn-9780525482871","title":"The Road from Raqqa","description":"\u003cb\u003eCrossing years and continents, the harrowing story of the road to reunion for two Syrian brothers who-despite a homeland at war and an ocean between them-hold fast to the bonds of family.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Runner-Up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Riveting . . . a resplendent love letter to an obliterated city.\"-\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eTheRoadfromRaqqa\u003c\/i\u003e had me grippedfromthe first page.I couldn't put it down.\"-ChristyLefteri,author of \u003ci\u003eThe Beekeeper of Aleppo\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Alkasem brothers, Riyad and Bashar, spend their childhood in Raqqa, the Syrian city that would later become the capital of ISIS. As a teenager in the 1980s, Riyad witnesses the devastating aftermath of the Hama massacre-an atrocity that the Hafez al-Assad regime commits upon its people. Wanting to expand his notion of government and justice, Riyad moves to the United States to study law, but his plans are derailed and he eventually falls in love with a Southern belle. They move to a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee, where they raise two sons and where Riyad opens a restaurant-Café Rakka-cooking the food his grandmother used to make. But he finds himself confronted with the darker side of American freedoms- the hardscrabble life of a newly arrived immigrant, enduring bigotry, poverty, and loneliness. Years pass, and at the height of Syria's civil war, fearing for his family's safety halfway across the world, he risks his own life by making a dangerous trip back to Raqqa.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Bashar, meanwhile, in Syria. After his older brother moves to America, Bashar embarks on a brilliant legal career under the same corrupt Assad government that Riyad despises. Reluctant to abandon his comfortable (albeit conflicted) life, he fails to perceive the threat of ISIS until it's nearly too late.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Road from Raqqa\u003c\/i\u003e brings us into the lives of two brothers bound by their love for each other and for the war-ravaged city they call home. It's about a family caught in the middle of the most significant global events of the new millennium, America's fraught but hopeful relationship to its own immigrants, and the toll of dictatorship and war on everyday families. It's a book that captures all the desperation, tenacity, and hope that come with the revelation that we can find home in one another when the lands of our forefathers fail us.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49738047881489,"sku":"NGR9780525482871","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50354753470737,"sku":"CIN0525482873G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50555321778449,"sku":"GOR013996279","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53511090569489,"sku":"NIN9780525482871","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0525482873.jpg?v=1750815113"},{"product_id":"road-from-raqqa-book-jordan-ritter-conn-9781984817181","title":"The Road from Raqqa","description":"The Alkasem brothers, Riyad and Bashar, spend their childhood in Raqqa, the city that would later became the capital of ISIS. As a teenager in the 1980s, Riyad witnesses the devastating aftermath of the Hama massacre-an atrocity by the Assad regime upon its people. Wanting to expand his notion of government and justice, Riyad moves to the United States to study the law, but his plans are derailed and he eventually falls in love with a Southern belle. They move to a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee, where they raise two sons and where Riyad opens a restaurant-Cafe Rakka-cooking the food his grandmother used to make. But he finds himself confronted with the darker side of American freedoms- the hardscrabble life of a newly-arrived immigrant, enduring bigotry, poverty, and loneliness. Years pass, and at the height of Syria's civil war, fearing for his family's safety halfway across the world, he risks his own life by making a dangerous trip back to Raqqa.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Bashar, meanwhile, stayed in Syria. After his older brother moved to America, Bashar embarked on a brilliant legal career under the same corrupt Assad government that Riyad despised. Reluctant to abandon his comfortable (albeit conflicted) life, he fails to perceive the threat of ISIS until it's nearly too late.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Road from Raqqa\u003c\/i\u003e brings us into the lives of two brothers bound by their love for each other and for the war-ravaged city they call home. It's about a family caught in the middle of the most significant global events of the new millennium, America's fraught-but-hopeful relationship to its own immigrants, and the toll of dictatorship and war on everyday families. It's a book that captures all the desperation, tenacity, and hope that come with the revelation that we can find home in each other when the lands of our forefathers fail us.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49740051742993,"sku":"NGR9781984817181","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50403222651153,"sku":"CIN1984817183A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51612590276881,"sku":"CIN1984817183G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1984817183.jpg?v=1751448074"},{"product_id":"american-men-book-jordan-ritter-conn-9781835985625","title":"American Men","description":"\"Empathetic and quietly profound.\" The New York Times From celebrated investigative journalist Jordan Ritter Conn (The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, ESPN) comes a fascinating and challenging portrait of modern manhood – as seen through the lens of four American men with vastly different backgrounds and experiences.  Between the weight of expectation and the restrictive force of the patriarchy pressing down on them, it is no wonder that so many men today feel stuck. But these debates on modern manhood often fail to consider the actual lives of men themselves: how do they live their lives day to day? Who do they love? What are their dreams?  Written from the perspectives of four very different men, Ryan, Gideon, Joseph and Nate, American Men explores the male psyche as each of them experiences trauma and recovery, violence, sex, power and powerlessness, as well as the difficulties of forming relationships in the context of contemporary life.  In part a condemnation of its faults, as well as a celebration of its virtues, American Men presents a truthful, balanced portrait of manhood and masculinity, as it exists today.  'Wise, insightful, and harrowing, American Men will leave readers both shattered and inspired’ - Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us, and (with Jodi Picoult) Mad Honey","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52893930258705,"sku":"NGR9781835985625","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53511326925073,"sku":"NLS9781835985625","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53617765056785,"sku":"GOR014983437","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781835985625.jpg?v=1774518408"},{"product_id":"american-men-book-jordan-ritter-conn-9781538709092","title":"American Men","description":"\u003cb\u003eA deeply intimate portrait of the lives of four men that examines--in profound and comprehensive ways--what it means to be a man in America.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003eMen wield outsized power across all major institutions. 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