In ten years of armed conflict in Syria, nearly 400,000 people have lost their lives. More than 11 million others have been forced from their homes.
The U.S., Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and many other countries have gotten involved in the conflict. Millions of refugees have flooded into neighboring countries and Europe.
In 2018, Geoff Norcross sat down with three authors who wrote three very different books about syria in front of an audience at the Portland Book Festival. Alia Malek is a journalist who’s memoir, “The Home that was our Country,” chronicles her family’s history in Syria. Elliot Ackerman is a former U.S. marine who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, and whose novel, “Dark at the Crossing,” tells the story of an Iraqi American who wants to fight for the resistance in Syria. And Emily Robbins is a scholar whose novel, “A Word for Love,” chronicles a forbidden love affair in Damascus.