Roundabout of Death

March 22, 2021
Khartash’s sparse and harrowing English-language debut offers an account of life in Aleppo during the Syrian Civil War. Arabic teacher Jumaa Abd al-Jaleel looks back on the disruptions to daily life in the decimated city as the fighting broke out in 2012: the sniper and bomb attacks, his school turned into a shelter, and afternoons spent in a café with other underemployed men, a safe haven for conversation away from soldiers. When he cannot reach his mother by telephone, he takes a circuitous route to investigate, only to find a nearby square destroyed by a bomb. In his mother’s building, she appears at the door, “an old lady... someone I barely recognized.” He takes a temporary job hocking grilled meat and learns his son, Nawwar, has been arrested at the university. The narrator’s wife becomes fixated on getting Nawwar supplies as they receive differing reports about his anticipated release. She also demands they leave Aleppo, pushing the narrator on a long journey to the capital of ISIS-held territory in hopes of finding a less volatile place to live. Throughout, the narrator maintains a detached tone, sometimes referring to himself in the third person, which, combined with the episodic storytelling, credibly captures his processing of trauma. Readers will find this fragmented tale of war-torn Aleppo and its displaced intellectuals chilling and insightful.

Starred review from May 1, 2021

"I tried to call my friends at the cafe, but nobody picked up...probably because the electricity was cut," Jumaa says collectedly in the opening pages of Syrian author Khartash's bleakly arresting look at Aleppo under siege. Slashed electricity, bombings, sniper attacks, burned-out houses, checkpoints (like the titular roundabout), and the killing of friends and relatives by combatants on both sides of the fighting--all are now routine, as readers are ushered into a landscape that feels surreal but couldn't be more horrifically factual. A high school teacher currently unemployed because school has been suspended, Jumaa gathers regularly with friends at Joha's Club, a sanctuary quickly reconstituted at the Island Cafe after the club's destruction. There, Jumaa argues with his buddies, eyes the kiosk owners who have moved indoors, and muses, "Maybe today won't be like all the others." But every day is like all the rest, and the arrest of his son sends Jumaa on a fruitless mission to secure his family's safety. VERDICT Heartbreaking in its matter-of-factness, Khartash's work delivers a clear sense of life amid war in his book's brief span.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.