The Last Syrian

´Nous sommes tous les enfants de cette planète malade´.

Recently naturalized French citizen, Omar Youssef Souleimane escaped Syria and refugiated to France. In his debut novel Le dernier Syrien - The last Syrian, he traces the hopeful beginnings of the movement that aimed to topple the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. 

There were so many hopes and expectations, maybe connecting with similar upraising from other countries like Egypt, Lybia or Tunisia. In none, democracy really succeeded, but the cruelty and brutality of the opression in Syria is equal to none. Over ten years after and millions of refugees later, in Syria rules the same Bashar from the al-Assad family that, with strong exterior help, turned the country in a heap of rubble. 

There is so much to analyse and discuss about the geopolitical intricacies that turned Syria in an inhabitable country except for al-Assad and his proxies, but Le dernier Syrien is not a political book. Sensually, Souleimane writes about a hopeful gang of friends, hoping in change, and ending up in the lowest betrayal; about the pleasure of the flesh and the kindness of neighbours - or their betrayal.

On the backdrop of the religious divides and dramatic reshuffle of political pawns, the young or less young people of Deraa, Aleppo or Damascus long for love, and especially freedom. Souleimane´s story is passionate and violent, expressed by the purity of the first kiss raped by the inhumanity of the prison torture. It shows how humans can destroy other humans only for the sake of saving their skin. (After so many years, I still cannot get out of my mind The Skin by Curzio Malaparte). 

It´s a story of broken destinies and unfulfilled promises. Hopefully the day is near when the young people of the Middle East will write their own happy stories. The trauma left by dictators and blood thirsty religious maniacs will remain as part of the collective psyche for a long time though. 

Rating: 3 stars