The latest addition to my website is Faysal Khartash‘s دوار الموت ما بين حلب والرقة (Roundabout of Death). The novel is set in the worst part of the Battle of Aleppo in 2012. Our hero, Jumaa, an Arabic teacher, his family and frirneds are trying to survive the horrors of thew war, which include regular bombs and missiles from Russian planes, sniper fire, lack of food, water and electricity, arbitrary arrests and tortures and the inability to move easily around because of damage, roadblock, sniper fire and the Russian plane attacks. But Jumaa is not going to let it get him down. He is going to sit in his favourite café with his friends, in the main square, probably safe as it is under regime control and when it is no longer safe – it gets bombed – they just move to another café. His poor mother suffers – her house is bombed – and his wife is particularly upset when their son is arrested. While Jamma is very concerned for his mother, his wife and their son, he is determined not to let it get him down too much, even when he goes to Raqqa, under the control of the Islamic State.
