The Last American In Damascus An Autobiography

Author : Thomas L. Webber
Publisher : Notion Press
ISBN 13 : 9781647606558
Total Pages : 362 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Last American in Damascus: An Autobiography written by Thomas L. Webber and published by Notion Press. This book was released on 2020-01-30 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time in my life, I was shot at as I approached the Beirut shore. I know now that if they wanted to kill me, they could have that night. This is just one of the many adventures the author has faced during his 44 years of living and working in the volatile Middle East. As the famous writer and lecturer, Helen Keller once wrote: "Life is a daring adventure, or it is nothing at all". In the author's own lifetime he has experienced a profuse number of adventures, and many were truly amazing life-changing episodes, in fact so many that he has decided to share them by writing his third book, The Last American in Damascus.

Author : Thomas L. Webber
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781648506765
Total Pages : 359 pages
Book Rating : 4.63/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Last American in Damascus written by Thomas L. Webber and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time in my life, I was shot at as I approached the Beirut shore. I know now that if they wanted to kill me, they could have that night. This is just one of the many adventures the author has faced during his 44 years of living and working in the volatile Middle East. As the famous writer and lecturer, Helen Keller once wrote: ?Life is a daring adventure, or it is nothing at all?. In the author?s own lifetime he has experienced a profuse number of adventures, and many were truly amazing life-changing episodes, in fact so many that he has decided to share them by writing his third book.

Author : Thomas L Webber
Publisher : Notion Press
ISBN 13 : 164760656X
Total Pages : 367 pages
Book Rating : 4.65/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Last American in Damascus written by Thomas L Webber and published by Notion Press. This book was released on 2020-05-25 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time in my life, I was shot at as I approached the Beirut shore. I know now that if they wanted to kill me, they could have that night. This is just one of the many adventures the author has faced during his 44 years of living and working in the volatile Middle East. As the famous writer and lecturer, Helen Keller once wrote: “Life is a daring adventure, or it is nothing at all”. In the author’s own lifetime he has experienced a profuse number of adventures, and many were truly amazing life-changing episodes, in fact so many that he has decided to share them by writing his third book, The Last American in Damascus.

Author : Theo Padnos
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1982120843
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Blindfold written by Theo Padnos and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning journalist’s extraordinary account of being kidnapped and tortured in Syria by al Qaeda for two years—a revelatory memoir about war, human nature, and endurance that’s “the best of the genre, profound, poetic, and sorrowful” (The Atlantic). In 2012, American journalist Theo Padnos, fluent in Arabic, Russian, German, and French, traveled to a Turkish border town to write and report on the Syrian civil war. One afternoon in October, while walking through an olive grove, he met three young Syrians—who turned out to be al Qaeda operatives—and they captured him and kept him prisoner for nearly two years. On his first day, in the first of many prisons, Padnos was given a blindfold—a grime-stained scrap of fabric—that was his only possession throughout his horrific ordeal. Now, Padnos recounts his time in captivity in Syria, where he was frequently tortured at the hands of the al Qaeda affiliate, Jebhat al Nusra. We learn not only about Padnos’s harrowing experience, but we also get a firsthand account of life in a Syrian village, the nature of Islamic prisons, how captors interrogate someone suspected of being CIA, the ways that Islamic fighters shift identities and drift back and forth through the veil of Western civilization, and much more. No other journalist has lived among terrorists for as long as Theo has—and survived. As a resident of thirteen separate prisons in every part of rebel-occupied Syria, Theo witnessed a society adrift amid a steady stream of bombings, executions, torture, prayer, fasting, and exhibitions, all staged by the terrorists. Living within this tide of violence changed not only his personal identity but also profoundly altered his understanding of how to live. Offering fascinating, unprecedented insight into the state of Syria today, Blindfold is “a triumph of the human spirit” (The New York Times Book Review)—combining the emotional power of a captive’s memoir with a journalist’s account of a culture and a nation in conflict that is as urgent and important as ever.

Author : Nicolaus of Damascus
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1316531236
Total Pages : 502 pages
Book Rating : 4.35/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Nicolaus of Damascus: The Life of Augustus and The Autobiography written by Nicolaus of Damascus and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-12-22 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nicolaus of Damascus, the chief minister of Herod the Great, was an exact contemporary of the first Roman emperor Augustus; he spent considerable time in Roman society and knew Augustus. The extensive remains of his Bios Kaisaros contain the earliest and most detailed account of the conspiracy against Julius Caesar and his assassination. The Bios also presents the most extensive account of the boyhood and early development of Augustus. This edition presents the Greek text and translation of the Bios and Nicolaus' autobiography, along with a historical and historiographical commentary. The Introduction situates the text in relation to the considerable evidence for the life and career of Nicolaus preserved in the works of Josephus, addresses the problem of its date of composition, analyses the language and narrative technique of Nicolaus and discusses the Bios in relation to the evidence for Greek biographical encomium.

Author : Stephanie Saldana
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0307280462
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.66/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Bread of Angels written by Stephanie Saldana and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2011-02-08 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting memoir about one woman's journey into Syria under the Baathist regime and an unexpected love story between two strangers searching for meaning. When Stephanie Saldaña arrives in Damascus, she is running away from a broken heart and a haunted family history that she has crossed the world to escape. Yet as she moves into a tumbling Ottoman house in the heart of the Old City, she is unprepared for the complex world that awaits her: an ancient capital where Sunni and Shia Muslims, Christians, Alawites, Kurds, and Palestinian and Iraqi refugees share a fragile co-existence. Soon she is stumbling through the Arabic language, fielding interviews from the secret police, and struggling to make the city her own. But as the political climate darkens and the war in neighboring Iraq threatens to spill over, she flees to an ancient Christian monastery carved into the desert cliffs, where she is forced to confront the life she left behind. Soon she will meet a series of improbable teachers: an iconoclastic Italian priest, a famous female Muslim sheikh, a wounded Iraqi refugee, and Frédéric, a young French novice monk who becomes her best friend. What follows is a tender story of a woman falling in love: with God, with her own life, with a country on the brink of chaos, and with a man she knows she can never have. Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, The Bread of Angels celebrates the hope that appears even in war, the surprising places we can call home, and the possibility of true love.

Author : Jamal Saeed
Publisher : ECW Press
ISBN 13 : 1778520022
Total Pages : 583 pages
Book Rating : 4.20/5 ( download)

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Download or read book My Road from Damascus written by Jamal Saeed and published by ECW Press. This book was released on 2022-10-04 with total page 583 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “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 from the 1950s right up to his escape to Canada in 2016, recounting its descent from a country of potential to a pawn of cynical and corrupt powers. He paints a picture of village life, his youthful love affairs, his rebellion as a young Marxist, and his evolution into a free thinker, living in hiding as a teenager for 30 months while being hunted by the secret police. He recalls his brutal prison years, his final release, and his family’s harrowing escape to Canada. While many prison memoirs focus on the cruelty of incarceration, My Road from Damascus offers a tapestry of Saeed’s whole life. It looks squarely at brutality but also at beauty and poetry, hope and love.

Author : Kim Schultz
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780995535107
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Three Days in Damascus written by Kim Schultz and published by . This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THREE DAYS IN DAMASCUS is a memoir about a three-year fight for a chance at love with an Iraqi refugee the author met in Syria. While travelling to Jordan, Lebanon and Syria to interview Iraqi refugees and hear some of their stories, Kim never expected to fall in love with one of them. But that is exactly what happened. This is the story of one American woman and one Iraqi man set against the backdrop of the Iraqi refugee crisis. Through actual Iraqi refugee interviews, a whirlwind middle-eastern love story and the consequently doomed, intercontinental relationship told through texts and emails with civil war, revolution and an arranged marriage as the backdrop, we learn of culture and devastation, desperation and redemption, while still never losing hope. While there are roughly 65 million refugees worldwide, approximately five million Iraqis have been displaced from their homes since the U.S led invasion of their country, most of them fleeing to Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Since Syria is currently in the midst of a violent civil war, the Iraqis there are left in an extremely dangerous position-- stuck between a rock and a hard place with nowhere to go. This timely memoir examines the lives of dozens of these Iraqi refugees trying desperately to survive in a world blind to their plight and one Iraqi in particular: Omar. Told through a strong narrative and a surprisingly comedic lens, the reader travels with the author through this unknown, sandy terrain breaking assumptions, stereotypes and expectations -- in a journey that ultimately ends in the most traditional assumption one could imagine: a Middle Eastern man agreeing to an arranged marriage. And after three years of trying to "save" Omar and salvage a life for/with him, she discovers maybe he wasn't the one who needed saving. "This heartfelt memoir will take you into another world, as Kim and Omar meet and walk many of love's pathways. An American volunteer interviewing Iraqi refugees about the horrors of war, Kim falls in love with Omar, and thus begins a three-year odyssey." Chellie Campbell, author From Worry to Wealthy and The Wealthy Spirit. "Kim's memoir is quite extraordinary in the way she brings you right up close, sometimes painfully, often with lots of laughs, to the situation of Iraqi refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria...She notices things most of us would shy away from, and she tells the story so personally, you feel you are with her...The stories of loss are told with painful, and respectful detail, biding the request from one refugee to 'tell the whole story'. Kim tells the story of Omar, and discovers he is typical of most refugees. She learns a refugee's greatest desire is to go home, and when they do move, their culture moves with them." Sybella Wilkes, UNHCR Senior Communications Officer. "Kim Schultz has written a searing love story set against the backdrop of a world tragedy: the plight of millions of refugees fleeing violence in the Middle East...It is a compelling read that will make you a look at world news in a different, more personal, way." Jim Michaels, author of A Chance in Hell: The men who triumphed over Iraq's deadliest city and turned the tide of war "Kim Schultz has written an earnest and honest account of two people from opposite poles finding love and heartache in the long shadow of an unforgiving war. Her story is a spirited struggle against larger forces - bureaucracy, culture, religion, human displacement, and loss." Kirk W. Johnson, author of To Be a Friend is Fatal: the Fight to Save the Iraqis America Left Behind and founder of the List Project.

Author : David McCloskey
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393881059
Total Pages : 347 pages
Book Rating : 4.59/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Damascus Station: A Novel written by David McCloskey and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the 2022 ITW Thriller Award for Best First Novel "Damascus Station is simply marvelous storytelling.…[A] stand-out thriller and essential reading for fans of the genre." —Financial Times A CIA officer and his recruit arrive in war-ravaged Damascus to hunt for a killer in this page-turner that offers the "most authentic depiction of modern-day tradecraft in print." (Navy SEAL sniper and New York Times bestselling author Jack Carr). CIA case officer Sam Joseph is dispatched to Paris to recruit Syrian Palace official Mariam Haddad. The two fall into a forbidden relationship, which supercharges Haddad’s recruitment and creates unspeakable danger when they enter Damascus to find the man responsible for the disappearance of an American spy. But the cat and mouse chase for the killer soon leads to a trail of high-profile assassinations and the discovery of a dark secret at the heart of the Syrian regime, bringing the pair under the all-seeing eyes of Assad’s spy catcher, Ali Hassan, and his brother Rustum, the head of the feared Republican Guard. Set against the backdrop of a Syria pulsing with fear and rebellion, Damascus Station is a gripping thriller that offers a textured portrayal of espionage, love, loyalty, and betrayal in one of the most difficult CIA assignments on the planet.

Author : Deborah Campbell
Publisher : Picador USA
ISBN 13 : 1250147875
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Disappearance in Damascus written by Deborah Campbell and published by Picador USA. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction Winner of the Freedom to Read Award Winner of the Hubert Evans Prize In the midst of an unfolding international crisis, renowned journalist Deborah Campbell finds herself swept up in the mysterious disappearance of Ahlam, her guide and friend. Campbell’s frank, personal account of a journey through fear and the triumph of friendship and courage is as riveting as it is illuminating. The story begins in 2007, when Deborah Campbell travels undercover to Damascus to report on the exodus of Iraqis into Syria, following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. There she meets and hires Ahlam, a refugee working as a “fixer”—providing Western media with trustworthy information and contacts to help get the news out. Ahlam has fled her home in Iraq after being kidnapped while running a humanitarian center. She supports her husband and two children while working to set up a makeshift school for displaced girls. Strong and charismatic, she has become an unofficial leader of the refugee community. Campbell is inspired by Ahlam’s determination to create something good amid so much suffering, and the two women become close friends. But one morning, Ahlam is seized from her home in front of Campbell’s eyes. Haunted by the prospect that their work together has led to her friend’s arrest, Campbell spends the months that follow desperately trying to find Ahlam—all the while fearing she could be next. The compelling story of two women caught up in the shadowy politics behind today’s most searing conflict, A Disappearance in Damascus reminds us of the courage of those who risk their lives to bring us the world’s news.