The Frightened Ones
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
'A complex tale of revolution, displacement, delusional love' Guardian
In Damascus, Suleima and Naseem's relationship is torn apart by the outbreak of civil war. With Naseem now seeking refuge in Germany, he sends Suleima the unfinished manuscript of his novel - and what she reads will throw her entire identity into question. Who is the unnamed woman in the book, and just what is Naseem trying to say? In search of answers, Suleima must confront what has happened to her family, to her country, and start to make sense of who she is.
Told with riveting immediacy, this is an intimate portrayal of living with fear from an electrifying new voice in international fiction.
'A shocking journey through the realities of life under the Assad regime' TLS
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Syrian writer Wannous's English-language debut is a bleak, multilayered tale of depression and fear framed by violence, discrimination, displacement, and revolution in Damascus after the 2011 uprising. It follows Suleima, a young woman struggling with anxiety, as she meets Naseem, a troubled writer who publishes under a pseudonym, in her therapist's waiting room. The two develop an intense relationship that abruptly ends when Naseem flees to Germany to escape Assad's dictatorship. He sends Suleima an unfinished manuscript featuring an unnamed main character that Suleima recognizes as a version of herself ("It's true that her family is different, as are her memories, but our souls clearly spin in the same orbit"). From there, Wannous alternates between Naseem's writing and Suleima's narration, in which she looks back on her life in Damascus from her own refuge in Beirut. The author describes the politics of the revolution and neatly parallels the present-day atrocities and Suleima's parents' memories of a 1982 massacre, but at the work's core is Wannous's exploration of Suleima's struggles with her mental health, as she relies on Xanax whenever her heartbeat reaches its "dreaded gallop." Though powerful in its portrayal of Suleima's layered ordeal, the dueling narratives are somewhat disjointed. Still, this deeply humane examination of wartime Syrians and their coping mechanisms deserves a look.
