Sabriya: Damascus Bitter Sweet

by Ulfat Idilbi

Overview

Sabriya portrays life in Damascus in the 1920's. Central to the story is Sabriya's journey to self-knowledge, intertwined with the rise and eclipse of national and feminist awareness during her painful life. The national revolt is crushed by superior foreign power and Sabriya's personal emancipation is stifled by the traditional values of a patriarchal society. Written from the point of view of a young girl passionately committed to the nationalist cause but unable, because of her sex, to take an active part, it seethes with the frustrated energy of the reluctant bystander and vividly expresses the terror of civilians living in a city rocked nightly by explosions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781566562546
Publisher:	Interlink Publishing Group Inc
Publication date:	01/01/1999
Series:	Emerging Voices Series
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Ulfat Idilbi was born in 1912 in Damascus, Syria. Her first novel Sabriya (published by Interlink) has been dramatized for Syrian Television.

Editorial Reviews

Sabriya is a haunting, accomplished novel about the lives of women in 1920's Syria...Idilbi's stately prose is relentless in its exposure of Sabriya's despair...[This novel] reveals Ulfat Idilbi as the possessor of a singular, passionate voice which is all her own.

Financial Times

Sabriya ( paper May 13, 1997; 248 pp.; 1-56656-219-8; paper 1-56656-254-6): Syria in the 1920s is the focus of this accomplished 1980 novel, which takes the form of a journal left behind after her suicide by its eponymous protagonist. A passionate adherent of nationalist agitation against her country's French colonial oppressors, Sabriya finds that her yearnings for political freedom are no more attainable than are love and marriage—the underground "war" that claims her husband-to-be proves no crueler than the stern patriarchy that demands her devotion to the needs of her aging parents. A bleak, painfully convincing story, narrated with admirable economy and restraint.

Kirkus Reviews

"A grand collection...The stories are splendid...As a collection of gypsy folklore, this seems to be unique; for readers or storytellers, it's a treasure trove."

"This thought-provoking anthology offers compelling insights into the often highly romanticized life of the gypsy...An unusual and substantial volume."

From the Publisher