First published 2012
Jonathan Littell crosses into Syria illegally in January 2012, carrying two notebooks into the rebel districts of Homs. He spends two and a half weeks embedded with Syrian Free Army deserters as they resist Bashar al-Assad's forces. Between periods of waiting and enforced idleness, Littell transforms his immediate experiences into detailed notes. He records conversations through translators and captures the feverish atmosphere where protagonists risk their lives at every moment. The notebooks document daily life among Homs residents in revolt, the resistance efforts of military defectors, and the brutal violence inflicted by government troops. Littell witnesses the final days of an uprising in a city quarter that would soon be crushed in ongoing bloodshed. What began as source material for later articles evolved into something more substantial during long stretches of downtime. The result captures a brief moment already vanished, with virtually no other outside witnesses present to record these last days before the rebellion's violent suppression.
Genres: political-science, non-fiction, 21st-century, activism
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: first-hand-account, witness
Setting: Homs, Syria
Period: 2012
233 pages · Paperback · Gallimard
Content warnings: violence