Hi everyone, I finaly finished reading this novel and your comments on the 2nd and 3rd parts also. After participating this discussion group I realized after reading and commenting the first part, it would suit me better to keep on reading without getting into debating the content.
Most of the thoughts I share with you and also the questions you were asking Zoulfa Katouh. Yesterday I was very curious to learn more about the reasons she wrote this novel the way she did in the live-chat setting. Unfortunately something was mistaken with date or/and time schedule for the live chat so after 40 minutes participating and reading your comments I went offline. What a pity I missed Zoulfa Katouh’s presence. 😢
I was wondering whether the novel will be translated in other languages? I saw there is also a edition in German with a different tiltle avaliable.
The novel kept my attention within the last weeks. Besides reading I did some research on Syrias history, the people and their culture and finaly got occupied by the human perspective of this novel. The impact of severe changes in Salamas life through loosing family, loosing her home, and when finaly her task in working at the hospital vanishes, the survival through escaping with Kenan and his siblings becomes her main task. Figuring out Leila beeing a hallucination made me sad and relieved at the same time. Salama evolves through the people she meets and decisions she makes in the end of the story.
For me it doesn‘t make that big difference whether there is an open end or not. Open ends habe the potential for readers to arouse imagination and for the author to continue with the story.
The book in my opinion suits the taste of a young audience. It empodies global and cultural awareness in a human uniting sense. The structure is very capturing. It keeps the audience involved and the characters inspire empathy. We feel connected with Salama in the way she desires fulfilling her duties and never loosing faith. We identify ourselfs with Salama and her passion to study pharmacy and Kenan with his artistic abilities and interest in japanese animation movies. Both of them are so full of hope and warmth to each other so we are capable to imagine they can online find a way out together. On the whole we generate a very modern picture of young peoples lives not so much diffrent to people on other places in the world and that is why it is so capturing reading this novel. When the protagonists are discovering the horror of war in their home country they are gaining strength through loss and are experiencing hope in finding love and their purpose to survive.
Thanks again to Orell Fuessli for the opportunity presenting this novel to us through setting up this reading and discussion group. It was a pleasure for me participating.
And trank you Zoulfa Katouh for your emphatic sense of sharing your story with us and your ambitions to open our minds to your home country and your culture.
