Wendy Pearlman is a professor and award-winning teacher at Northwestern University, specializing in Middle East politics. Educated at Harvard, Georgetown, and Brown, Pearlman speaks fluent Arabic and has spent more than twenty years studying and living in the Arab World. She is the author of numerous articles and two books, Occupied Voices: Stories of Everyday Life from the Second Intifada (Nation Books, 2003) and Violence, Nonviolence, and the Palestinian National Movement (Cambridge University Press, 2011). She lives in Chicago, Illinois.
"Pearlman spoke with hundreds of displaced Syrians... Common among the spare and haunting testimonies of these mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters are the loss and reappearance of hope, humanity, and dreams of new freedom. This powerfully edifying work of witness is essential reading." -- Booklist (starred review) "It's unsurprising to see the anger not just toward Syrian president Bashar al-Assad but also toward the international community...Nonetheless, the book is filled with hope, informed by an understanding of the unity possible in spite of the discord sowed by Assad." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Pearlman's book is not only important because it puts names to suffering, but also because it reminds readers-especially in the final segment, "Reflections"-that in the Syrian conflict, "there is no right or wrong," only problematic "shades of gray." A poignant and humane collection." -- Kirkus Reviews "A heartbreaking, human, and necessary book. Recommended for anyone who wishes to better understand the Syrian conflict." -- Library Journal "Incendiary-this heart-wrenching testament could not be more timely. Beyond headlines or breaking news or political posturing, this work of witness allows real people to expose Syria's terrifying heart." -- Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Devil's Highway and Into The Beautiful North "To read these pages, to meet these men and women, is to cross a bridge ourselves, and to tremble: at the fragility of social order...but also at the love, anger, terror, trauma, compassion, endurance, awe, and determination a single human voice can convey." -- Larry Siems, author of The Torture Report and editor of Mohamedou Ould Slahi's Guantanamo Diary "Pearlman masterfully stitches together a collective journey, stories moving seamlessly from one to the next...The disparate voices, ranging from defiant, funny, mournful, wistful, and tragic, form a complex narrative of the Syrian tragedy-my story, my family's stories, the stories of the people and lives that we lost." -- Lina Sergie Attar, cofounder and chief executive of the Karam Foundation
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