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Cinnamon

Cinnamon

by Samar Yazbek (Author)

  • New

    Paperback 2012

    $12.22
Synopsis

In the dark of night, Hanan al-Hashimi awakens from a nightmare, confused and shaken. Roaming the house in search of some reassurance, she is drawn towards the streak of light under her husband's bedroom door. Little does she know that the beckoning glow will turn her life on its head, unsettling her fragile mind and sending her servant Aliyah tumbling back to the dusty alleyways of her childhood. Banished from her mistress's villa in the small hours of the morning, Aliyah's route back to her old neighbourhood is paved with the memories of the family she left behind and the mistress she betrayed. Exhausted by the night's events, both maid and mistress seek refuge in sleep. In their dreams, the women's memories - of troubled childhoods, loneliness, love and their lives together - combine seamlessly to narrate the story of two Damascene women's search for security and tenderness. From the tinroofed shack of Aliyah's family home, to the isolated grandeur of Hanan's imprisoning villa, the characters' recollections journey through Damascus, painting a portrait of the city in all of its contradictions: poverty and luxury, dormancy and change. Samar Yazbek's quick-paced narrative balances intense drama with the insightful portrayal of her characters' precarious mental states. Bizarre and darkly humorous, yet with clear emotional realism Cinnamon is a tale from the inner world of the women of Damascus.

$12.22

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Quantity

4 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 160
 Publisher: Haus Publishing
Published: 21 Nov 2012
ISBN 10: 1906697434
ISBN 13: 9781906697433

Media Reviews
'[Her novel] is a defiant and resonating cry. Ground-breaking...it merits our attention and concern.'
Author Bio
SAMAR YAZBEK was born in Jableh in 1970. She studied literature before beginning her career as a journalist and a scriptwriter for Syrian television and film. A highly regarded writer in Syria, her novels in Arabic include Child of Heaven (2002), Clay (2005), Cinnamon (2008) and In Her Mirrors (2010). In 2010 she was selected as one of the Beirut39; a prestigious group comprising the 39 most promising writers of the Arab World, under the age of 39. But Samar Yazbek has also achieved wider international acclaim for her book: A Woman in the Crossfire. This work is a compelling personal account of her participation in the Syrian revolution; it details the first months of the uprisings, and the regime's brutal response to the early protests. It was for this work that she won the 2012 PEN Pinter Prize, being named by poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, with whom she shared the prize, as a writer of outstanding courage. She also won the 2012 Swedish Tucholsky Prize: awarded to writers who have made exceptional efforts to promote freedom of speech. Previous winners of the award include Salman Rushdie, Bei Dao and Nuruddin Farah. Her documentation of the uprisings led to persecutions against her in Syria and ultimately she was forced to flee. She currently lives in hiding.