[A] riveting detective story… Campbell reveals the intimate relationship between journalist and fixer — and, more tellingly, unravels a darker truth about how a paranoid security service can terrorize those on both sides of a prison wall…. Even for those who don't have a personal connection to the Syrian story, Disappearance is a great read. It's a taut detective story, and an intimate account of friendship in the paranoia of a coming war.”
—Deb Amos, NPR.ORG
“I imagine that most everyone who reads A Disappearance in Damascus will come to a moment when an image suddenly clutches at his or her heart... Deborah Campbell has written a searing and extraordinarily affecting account of her experiences in Syria in the mid-2000s, one that reads in equal parts as memoir, history and mystery story... Riveting and devastating... [Campbell] has produced one of the more harrowing accounts of life inside a police state in recent memory.”
—Scott Anderson, The New York Times Book Review
“A serious, riveting work about a part of the world that too many of us know too little about... The book is steeped in atmosphere and sensual details, bringing Damascus to vibrant life, a reminder that the war-torn neighborhoods we see in the news are only one part of a sophisticated ancient world... This important book opens our eyes to the lives of the people who are trying to find peace in a world of chaos.”
—Laurie Hertzel, Minneapolis Star Tribune
“[A Disappearance in Damascus] relates an unsettling true story with journalistic adroitness and novelistic flair…. The author powerfully conveys Ahlam’s plight behind bars, injecting stark brutality into a story hitherto characterized by uncertainty and angst, and ushering the reader into a terrifying hidden dimension.”
—The Washington Post
“Gripping, inspiring, and at times intensely sorrowful, A Disappearance in Damascus provides a portrait of tremendous courage and resourcefulness within the community of Iraqi war survivors in Syria, the devastation war wreaks upon civilians, and a remarkable friendship between two women.”—PHIL KLAY, National Book Award-winning author of Redeployment
“In this compelling, moving book, Deborah Campbell unearths so much of what could have disappeared in Damascus—the outcome of the misguided and illegal war on Iraq, a fractured refugee community, reporters risking their lives to get the news out—but mainly the story of Ahlam: a brave, ironic, brilliant Iraqi fixer who bridges worlds and is mother to a community. This is a book about the power of friendship between women, about raw courage, and the political and deeply personal devastations of war.”—EVE ENSLER, author of In the Body of the World and The Vagina Monologues
“An extraordinary story of a journalist and her translator as they report on the exodus of Iraqis into Syria following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. They both unwillingly become part of the drama which exposes the legacy of the US invasion of Iraq, the perils of reporting, the bonds of friendship and the undoing of Syria. I could not put this book down.”—ANNE GARRELS, author of Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia and Naked in Baghdad
“A Disappearance in Damascusis not just a thriller looking for a missing person but an urgent moral tale about a journalist’s responsibility to their sources and fixers. To her credit,Campbell goes back and does not let go.”
—BEN RAWLENCE, author of City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp
“On the surface, [A Disappearance in Damascus] is a detective novel, a eulogy to the dying art of immersive journalism. Slightly deeper is a story of love and friendship, and the forces that can tear them apart or make them stronger. Deeper still is a political exegesis exposing the arrogance and folly of the great (and not so great) powers... Campbell deftly unravels all of these complexities, gives them a face, makes them human, so we can finally start to make sense of the incomprehensibility of the world’s most intractable conflict.”—Maclean’s (Canada)
“In a seamless blend of storytelling and reportage, Deborah Campbell’s A Disappearance in Damascus draws us into the struggles of Iraqi refugees settled in Syria after the fall of Baghdad. The principal character, an Iraqi ‘fixer’ who is also a grieving mother and a nurturing humanitarian, is taken by secret police. Campbell’s account of the search to find her, written with compelling prose, nuanced context, and intimate narration, illuminates the dangers of life and work in a conflict zone through a riveting tale of courage, loss, love, and friendship.”—2016 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-fiction jury (Carolyn Abraham, Stephen Kimber, and Emily Urquhart)
“Compelling...A bold snapshot of the Assad regime prior to the start of the war, and will give readers an idea of why so many have fought to be rid of that dictator.”—Pique (Canada)
“A vivid portrait...A must-read for people wanting to further their understanding of the Syrian civil war and refugee crisis, and about the deep ramifications that the Iraq war had on the rest of the Middle East. Especially now that the worst-case scenario that many Syrians have feared has come to pass, the book is essential to understanding the circumstances that societies lived with before their countries fell into chaos.”—Vancouver Observer (Canada)
“Paced like a good novel...A Disappearance in Damascus is vivid, provocative and timely. High-profile kidnappings, arrests and deaths of journalists and their assistants in conflict zones in the last few years have increased public awareness of the role that fixers play and the perils they face....While institutional efforts may improve protection for fixers, A Disappearance in Damascus illustrates how individual conscience and courage may also be necessary to confront the dangers of bringing news from hot spots around the world.”—Literary Review of Canada
“Deborah Campbell... [is] a sympathetic, informed, and committed investigator. [A Disappearance in Damascus] offers a detailed, personal look at the consequences of disruptive global events on the individuals most affected by them... Early on in A Disappearance in Damascus, Campbell warns against the imperial impulse to create policies that affect people ‘while knowing almost nothing of who they are or what consequences our actions might have.’"—Quill & Quire (Canada)
“Riveting...Campbell’s book weaves the global into the utmost personal—a story of friendship flowering, then frighteningly uprooted....Campbell’s urgency to find and free Ahlam drives a narrative laced with reflections on friendship, duty, imperialism and love strained by ambition....This book took a long time to write—and clearly the results were worth the wait!”—The Tyee (Canada)
09/01/2017
Acclaimed journalist Campbell first met Ahlam in Damascus while on assignment to cover the growing unrest in Syria. Their friendship is the focus of this title. The first part of the book moves seamlessly between Ahlam's personal history and her work as a fixer for Western reporters, including Campbell. While Ahlam was the first person from her village to get a university degree, she couldn't afford to leave her country and use her education. Her job assisting foreigners during the Iraqi War drew negative attention, leading her to flee to Syria, where she became a leader within the refugee community. The second half of the book focuses on Ahlam's kidnapping, specifically how Campbell reconciles that she may have been the cause of her friend's disappearance, and what she and others do to try to find their companion. VERDICT Captivating and emotional, this book centers more on the story of Ahlam than that of the author, allowing readers to immerse themselves in the refugee experience and feel their uncertainty amid the chaos. For readers interested in current events, strong female friendships, and the ongoing crises in the Middle East. [See Prepub Alert, 4/3/17.]—Heidi Uphoff, Sandia National Laboratories, NM
★ 2017-05-28
A Canadian journalist covering the plight of Iraqis who fled to Syria a decade ago enlists the help of an Iraqi woman in Damascus—friendship and disaster ensue.In 2007, Campbell (Creative Writing/Univ. of British Columbia), a three-time National Magazine Award winner for foreign correspondence, was working on a major story for Harper's about Iraqi refugees when she first made contact with Ahlam, an Iraqi woman who served as her "fixer" (one who clears paths for journalists). Their professional relationship soon grew personal, and the author chronicles what went well and what went terribly wrong. Told principally in the first person, Campbell's story includes not only her stark and frightening experiences in Damascus, but also her fracturing love life back home as well as background on the Iraq War and ensuing civil war and the frangible stability in Syria, the only country to accept large numbers of Iraqi refugees. As she worked on her story, Campbell's friendship with Ahlam flourished and continued when the author left the country. Then Campbell found out that Ahlam had been arrested. The author, feeling profound guilt (was it because of her?), employed numerous strategies to find out why she was arrested, where she was being held, and what the charges were. Campbell's text races along—catching readers' hearts as it goes—and after the arrest, the author includes sections of "Ahlam's Story," grim third-person accounts about the experience of prison: deprivation, interrogations, violence, and terror. These sections increase the tension in readers, who have known since the beginning that dark things were on the way. The author sometimes veers a little toward the melodramatic near the ends of chapters, but it's a small quibble in a powerful book. In the stormwater's swirl, Campbell has found a bright and tender leaf to follow, and the effect on readers will be transformative.
