- Ayman al-ʿAtūm (1972-, Jordan) – Yasmaʿūn Ḥasīsaha (‘They hear its senses’, 2012). Hero of this novel is the doctor Iyād Saʿd, who is imprisoned in a torturous ‘hell on earth’: the Tadmur prison in Syria. The novel portrays the 17 years the narrator spends in Tadmur, accused of being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and descries the daily beatings as well as the friendships he develops with other prisoners. It ends with the narrator’s reunion with his family (reference).
- Fawwāz Ḥaddād (1947-, Syria) – al-Sūriyyūn al-Aʿdāʾ (‘The enemy Syrians’, 2014). This novel describes the life of the doctor ʿAdnān al-Rājī, who as a baby survived a shooting on his family, who is sentenced to death by the Asad regime. However, due to the intervention of an army assistant, he is sent to the infamous Tadmur prison, which the novel describes in detail (reference). The novel reflects the state of Syria during the reigns of Hafez and Bashar al-Asad, starting with the 1982 Hama massacre to the 2011 Syrian revolution, through the story of its Alawite characters (reference) (also in 1982 Hama massacre).
- Muṣṭafā Khalīfah (1948-, Syria) – al-Qawqaʿa: Yawmiyyāt Mutalaṣṣiṣ (2008, English trans. The Shell: Memoirs of a Hidden Observer, 2017). A young Syrian student traveling back to Syria from France is arrested and brought to one of Assad’s harshest prisons, the Tadmur, on the accusation of being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood (reference). The novel describes the daily life in prison, including scenes of torture and fights between fellow inmates, and describes how the narrator feels increasingly isolated as a Christian atheist between the members of the Muslim Brotherhood, a feeling of solitude that continues even after his release. The novel partly reflects the experiences of the author himself who has spent thirteen years in a Syrian prison during Hafez al-Assad’s regime.
- Yāsīn al-Ḥājj Ṣāliḥ (1961-, Syria) – Bi al-Khalāṣ ya Shabbāb! 16 ʿĀman fī al-Sijn al-Sūrī (‘Salvation, o boys: 16 years in Syrian prisons’, 2012). A memoir telling of the author’s sixteen years of imprisonment, starting form his arrest in the 1980s when studying medicine in Aleppo on the accusation of being an opposition member, to being moved between many different prisons, finally ending up in the Tadmur.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Aḥmad al-Sharīqī. 2013. “‘Yasmaʿūn Ḥasīsha’.. Jaḥīm al-Ṭūghāh ʿAlā al-Arḍ.” www.aljazeera.net, 15 Feburary 2013 https://www.aljazeera.net/news/cultureandart/2013/2/15/%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%B9%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%AD%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%87%D8%A7-%D8%AC%D8%AD%D9%8A%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B7%D8%BA%D8%A7%D8%A9-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B1%D8%B6 (last accessed 26 October 2021)
- Selmā Sālim. 2015. “Fawwāz Ḥaddād fī ‘al-Sūriyyūn al-aʿadāʾ’: Taḥawullāt al-Bashr fī Būtiqah ‘al-Abad’.” In Bidāyyāt (10) https://www.bidayatmag.com/node/523 https://bidayatmag.com/node/523 (last accessed December 6, 2021)
- Aljazeera Arabic: Khārij al-Naṣṣ. 2020. “Al-Sūriyyūn al-Aʿdāʾ … Zaman al-Ibādah al-Sūriyyah.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDWlz_4eCD4, 20 October 2023 (last accessed 26 October 2023)
- Olivia Snajie. 2014. “Book Reviews: La Coquille: Prisonnier politique en Syrie (The Shell: political prisoner in Syrie).” Banipal 50 https://www.banipal.co.uk/book_reviews/137/la-coquille-prisonnier-politique-en-syrie/ (last accessed 28 November 2018)