• No Turning Back

  • Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria
  • By: Rania Abouzeid
  • Narrated by: Susan Nezami
  • Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (51 ratings)

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No Turning Back

By: Rania Abouzeid
Narrated by: Susan Nezami
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Publisher's summary

Based on more than five years of clandestine reporting on the front lines, No Turning Back is an utterly engrossing human drama full of vivid, indelible characters that shows how hope can flourish even amid one of the 21st century's greatest humanitarian disasters.

Extending back to the first demonstrations of 2011, No Turning Back dissects the tangle of ideologies and allegiances that make up the Syrian conflict. As protests ignited in Daraa, some citizens were brimming with a sense of possibility. A privileged young man named Suleiman posted videos of the protests online, full of hope for justice and democracy. A father of two named Mohammad, secretly radicalized and newly released from prison, saw a darker opportunity in the unrest.

When violence broke out in Homs, a poet named Abu Azzam became an unlikely commander in a Free Syrian Army militia. The regime's brutal response disrupted a family in Idlib province, where a nine-year-old girl opened the door to a military raid that caused her father to flee. As the bombings increased and roads grew more dangerous, these people's lives intertwined in unexpected ways.

©2018 Rania Abouzeid (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

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good story

this was a great book. the only issue was sometimes keeping up with all the names. the narrator has a nice voice to listen to!

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SYRIA'S FAMILY BUSINESS

“No Turning Back” is a “just the facts” reveal of the Syrian civil war that began in 2011 and still simmers in 2022. General Hafez al-Assad, the father of Bashar al Assad (the President of Syria), created a military dictatorship which became a totalitarian police state run by the Asad family business. The Assad family business has ruled Syria since 1971.

Abouzeid infers disparate religious beliefs and ethnic diversity make Syrian democracy highly improbable. She explains factional leaders seek control of the territory during the Syrian civil war while insisting it is only “their way or the highway”. Abouzeid shows the Assad family, and the Alawite sect of the Islamic religion remain autocratic rulers of Syria. The best one can hope is that Assad’s autocracy will more equitably treat all Syrian citizens, whether they are a part of the family business or not. If Assad has not learned that lesson, civil war will return with greater force, and possibly a more repressive autocracy.

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