We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled, Wendy Pearlman
We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled, Wendy Pearlman
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We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled
Voices from Syria

Author: Wendy Pearlman

Narrator: Erin Bennett, Assaf Cohen, Susan Nezami

Unabridged: 6 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 06/06/2017


Synopsis

Reminiscent of the work of Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich, an astonishing collection of intimate wartime testimonies and poetic fragments from a cross-section of Syrians whose lives have been transformed by revolution, war, and flight.Against the backdrop of the wave of demonstrations known as the Arab Spring, in 2011 hundreds of thousands of Syrians took to the streets demanding freedom, democracy and human rights. The government’s ferocious response, and the refusal of the demonstrators to back down, sparked a brutal civil war that over the past five years has escalated into the worst humanitarian catastrophe of our times. Yet despite all the reporting, the video, and the wrenching photography, the stories of ordinary Syrians remain unheard, while the stories told about them have been distorted by broad brush dread and political expediency. This fierce and poignant collection changes that. Based on interviews with hundreds of displaced Syrians conducted over four years across the Middle East and Europe, We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled is a breathtaking mosaic of first-hand testimonials from the frontlines. Some of the testimonies are several pages long, eloquent narratives that could stand alone as short stories; others are only a few sentences, poetic and aphoristic. Together, they cohere into an unforgettable chronicle that is not only a testament to the power of storytelling but to the strength of those who face darkness with hope, courage, and moral conviction.

About Wendy Pearlman

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.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Alice on June 07, 2020

Educational, heartbreaking and filled to the brink with humanity.......more

Goodreads review by Murtaza on May 26, 2017

This is a set of one hundred or so vignettes narrated by Syrians, talking about their own experiences before, during and after the Syrian Revolution. Syria was a country of 22 million people and anyone who lived through these incredible events will have personal stories like these, which are by thei......more

Goodreads review by Deborah on January 30, 2022

For years the people of Syria had been silent to the atrocities, distrust, terror, corruption, chaos, humiliations, and human rights abuses of both Hafez al-Hassad, who ruled from 1971 to 2000, and then his son, Bashar al-Assad, who became president after his father’s death. “We weren’t allowed to h......more

Goodreads review by Ann on June 05, 2017

This book should be required reading for everyone.......more

Goodreads review by Nelson on June 10, 2021

Há bastante tempo que desejava ler algo sobre a guerra civil na Síria. Ao longo da última década vimos refugiados chegarem à Europa, alguns deles por meios de grande perigosidade — atravessando o Mediterrâneo em barcas de madeira —, daí a curiosidade natural de saber como se chega a este estado — o......more