A Disappearance in Damascus: A Story of Friendship and Survival in the Shadow of War

by Deborah Campbell

In the midst of an unfolding international crisis, the renowned journalist Deborah Campbell finds herself swept up in the mysterious disappearance of Ahlam, her guide and friend. Her frank, personal account of a journey through fear, and the triumph of friendship and courage, is as riveting as it is illuminating.

The story begins in 2007 when Deborah Campbell travels undercover to Damascus to report on the exodus of Iraqis into Syria following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. There she meets and hires Ahlam, a refugee working as a “fixer”—providing Western media with trustworthy information and contacts to help get the news out. Ahlam, who fled her home in Iraq after being kidnapped while running a humanitarian centre, not only supports her husband and two children through her work with foreign journalists but is setting up a makeshift school for displaced girls. She has become a charismatic, unofficial leader of the refugee community in Damascus, and Campbell is inspired by her determination to create something good amid so much suffering. Ahlam soon becomes her friend as well as her guide. But one morning Ahlam is seized from her home in front of Campbell’s eyes. Haunted by the prospect that their work together has led to her friend’s arrest, Campbell spends the months that follow desperately trying to find her—all the while fearing she could be next.

Through its compelling story of two women caught up in the shadowy politics behind today’s conflict, A Disappearance in Damascus reminds us of the courage of those who risk their lives to bring us the world’s news.

Genres: Nonfiction, Middle East, Memoir, History, War, Politics, Biography Memoir

354 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 25, 2015

Reviews

[Taryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Before the war you understood the rules: avoid the government and you will be safe. After the war there were no rules, only chaos."

In the years following the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent civil war, over a million Iraqis poured over the Syrian border to escape the chaotic violence in their homeland. Writer Deborah Campbell traveled undercover to Syria in 2007 to interview the Iraqi refugees and show her readers the human face of the war. Foreign correspondents often use fixers who are native to the region to help navigate unfamiliar and often unwelcoming places. The fixers help navigate the bureaucracy and gain the trust of reluctant interview subjects, among other things. Campbell connected with Ahlam, an Iraqi refugee and fixer, who came with stellar recommendations. What begins as a professional relationship quickly evolves into a friendship.

Being a fixer is dangerous and there were indications that Ahlam was being watched. Campbell worried that she put Ahlam in harm's way by employing her. Their worst fears were confirmed when Ahlam was taken from her home by a group of men and never returned. Did they take her because of her work as a fixer? Is it possible that Ahlam's problems in Iraq followed her into Syria? Or even more terrifying--was she taken for no reason at all? During the months following Ahlam's disappearance, Campbell uses all of her resources to discover where Ahlam was being held and what charges were being levied against her. The fact-finding mission is difficult and frustrating in a place where digging around too much can cause even more problems and one has to be careful who they trust.

What I strive to do is bridge the gap between the readers of the magazines I write for, such as Harper’s or The Economist, and people in troubled places who such readers would never otherwise meet. We talk about them, make policies to deal with them, even make war on them, while knowing almost nothing of who they are or what consequences our actions might have.

At heart, this book is about the friendship between a journalist and her fixer, so we get to know both women. Campbell describes what it's like to be a foreign correspondent, both personally and professionally. Sometimes she struggles with her purpose. Is there any point what she's doing when the past is already set in stone? Does making her readers feel something for the people she's reporting on actually result in any meaningful action? Is she making things worse for people like Ahlam? Foreign correspondents also face many dangers and it's best to stay under the radar. Campbell learns firsthand how the police state worms its way into one's psyche and alters a person, even those who have the option to leave.

The star of this book is Ahlam. It's worth it to read this book just to get to know her! She's a fearless and capable person with a realistic perspective. Campbell describes her as a woman "whose power derived from no one but herself.” When the American troops arrived in Ahlam's village just outside of Baghdad, she adapted to the new circumstances and worked alongside them. Her practicality made life better for her neighbors, but it also made her a target. She was kidnapped because her association with the Americans marked her as a traitor and spy. Her kidnappers released her after her family paid the $50,000 ransom and she promised to leave Iraq. (Note: Ransom payments typically result in automatic denial of a refugee application, because it counts as providing "material aid to terrorists.") Even after the price she already paid for her activism, she was not content to recede into the shadows. After she fled to Syria and settled into the refugee community of Sayeda Zainab, also known as "Little Baghdad," she continued her work as a fixer and set out to create a school for refugee children. She was determined to make a difference, even though group meetings were against the law and she sensed the authorities watching her.

Now that my belief in freedom of action, in agency, was gone, it seemed to me that it must have been an illusion all along. Just a luxury wrought by a worldview in which individuals believe they shape their own destinies—and a curse as well. In the West we are taught this from birth: that the course of our life is determined by how well we play our cards. The weak are weak because they did something wrong; the powerful have power because they earned it. Only now was I coming to understand the sense of fatalism so common in the East, where most of what happens is determined by forces beyond one’s control.

I expected this book to be more about Syria, but it's just as much about Iraq. Campbell breaks down the complex history in an accessible way and outlines the path that led Syria and Iraq to their present-day situations. She describes the rural/urban divisions that led to Syrian Civil War and the fears Syrians had about the problems that might follow the constant influx of Iraqi refugees. With regards to Iraq, she shows the effects of removing a strong central power in a society with a deeply entrenched authoritarian culture without a strong institutional framework in place. Ahlam explains that Iraq “moved from one dictator to a multi-dictatorship system." Campbell shows how the demographics of Iraq contributed to the chaos after the invasion. Centuries-old disputes boiled over and many times personal conflicts took cover under political ones. The violence between the various sectarian groups leads Ahlam's brother, a driver, to carry four different identification cards. Choosing the wrong ID at a random stop could be fatal. The region has also long been plagued by the meddling of foreign governments, such as Western governments propping up of authoritarian regimes who advanced their financial interests and neighboring nations taking advantage of the instability for their own gain. Decades of ill-advised decisions and their unintended consequences worsened an already chaotic situation. Some of the decisions made thousands of miles away in Washington D.C. actually invigorated the Iraqi resistance and led to the formation of ISIS.

I dreamed about the death journey of the salmon. The salmon, as it battles upriver to spawn, grows fangs and a snout, turning from Jekyll into Hyde. After spawning and giving up its life, it floats downstream, providing food for bears, eagles, trees, for every living thing. If the rainforest seemed like a vision of the deep past, Sayeda Zainab—Little Baghdad—seemed like the future. Masses of humanity, on the run from our own species and our uniquely destructive abilities. Here, I was about as far as it was possible to be from that place of natural cycles. Here, when someone died, it was almost always for nothing.

Ahlam maintains her humanity and integrity when everything around her is falling apart. She knows her work as a fixer is dangerous but is insistent that “someone has to open the door and show the world what is happening.” This book shows the human cost of conflict and "what survival looks like with all the scaffolding of normal life ripped away." Most people just want to be left alone to raise their families in peace. Sometimes that means making previously unfathomable trade-offs, like accepting encroachments on their freedom to avoid war or joining an unsavory group that promises to feed and protect their families (if there was even a choice to begin with). As Alessandro Orsini says in his book Sacrifice, "If it protects you from violence, even a crappy society becomes desirable." As people separate into opposing sides, those who exist outside those boundaries pay a high price. Campbell introduces us to the people who are stuck in the middle, the ones doing their part to rebuild their country and regain some semblance of stability with little support or resources. One story that really struck me was a man voluntarily donning his traffic guard uniform in an attempt to reign in chaos after the U.S. suspended Iraq's traffic code.

At this point, I've read several books about the conflicts in the Middle East, from both American and Middle Eastern perspectives. A common theme ties them all together: the feeling of being forgotten. The terrible cost of war can be difficult to comprehend from thousands of miles away. Civilian responsibility and engagement shouldn't end with the decision to go to war; everything that happens after that matters too. A Disappearance in Damascus is a reminder of our shared humanity and the enduring consequences of war. You can read Deborah Campbell's articles on her website. To get a feel for this book, I recommend reading Exodus: Where Will Iraq Go Next (Ahlam is named Aisha in the article).

If you are looking for more books about the region and its conflicts, you might be interested in the following books:
• Being Kurdish in a Hostile World by Ayub Nuri
• The Prisoner in His Palace: Saddam Hussein, His American Guards, and What History Leaves Unsaid by Will Bardenwerper - This is one of my favorite books! It gives insight into a Saddam Hussein's mind and the enigmatic face of evil.
• Iraq + 100: The First Anthology of Science Fiction to Have Emerged from Iraq by Hassan Blasim - Ten short stories that envision Iraq in 100 years. There's a scene in A Disappearance in Damascus where a man is fascinated by Ahlam's humanity, because he had been taught that "Iraqis were all wild, like animals.” The anecdote instantly made me think of Kuszib by Hassan Abdulrazzak. One of Deborah Campbell's contacts has a dim prediction for Iraq's future:

“Even after ten years we won’t be back to zero,” he said, “because of the mentality of this new generation. This generation and the next two generations. They aren’t being educated anymore, they see nothing but violence. They’ve become easy to brainwash and they are caught between Saudi Arabia and Iran.”

• Verax: A Graphic History of Electronic Surveillance - Deborah and Ahlam both express the fear of being watched. This graphic novel discusses some of the mass surveillance technologies being sold to repressive governments like Syria. It also shows how the US government collects information on US citizens.
• I found Voices from Iraq: A People's History 2003-2009 while looking to verify the "radicals putting underwear on sheep" anecdote. I haven't read this one, but I want to.

____________
I received this book for free from Netgalley and Macmillan-Picador. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. It's available now!

[capture stories · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A Disappearance in Damascus" ensues true friendship, family, and love entwined in an accurate depiction of a war story connecting Iraq and Syrian. Deft and tension with a small account of the author's blunt and fearsome experiences in Damascus while having the Iraq war as the background and the civil war gripping Syria, which harbors many Iraqi refugees, highlights the piercing narratives therein. In its dire situation, two women share the primary qualities in the brave but quiet fight against society's average expectation towards the woman—the friendship bonded in a way no other does. But, unfortunately, a fixer, a middle eastern woman, working with a westerner, journalist on a cover story to reveal the real situation behind the war brought a deadly and dangerous fate upon them. Unraveling down the disappearance of the fixer until the frantic and panic search the journalist, the author herself, fought through to rescue her friend from disappearing forever...

In many dark moments, between the drive to expose iniquitous power relations and reevaluate revered political figures, there are puffs of humor that illuminate the story here and there, making the reading profoundly human in a war story. Likewise, elaborated details about sectarian groups, organization, places, and times which seemed too much to understand and difficult to follow, are palpable. However, this is a minor quibble, in my opinion, when the author has pulled up a story that is vivid, unusual, and so much about the impact of war on humanity which leaves a deep impression for a long time to come.

[Eliza · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been sitting on my shelf for a month until I decided to open it after attending a talk on the intentional targeting of hospitals in war zones. I guess I was scared of it at first because there's something so hopeless and depressing about reading real terrible things happening to real people and knowing that it is still being lived through by many somewhere in the world.

I'm glad to have read it though. It was written with a raw honesty that's neither excessively sentimental nor underplays the course of the events and the people. Regardless of the accuracy in the author's take on wars and their causes, it helped me to make more sense of the complexity of the situation that's often oversimplified in Western media digests. Before, I knew what happened, but doesn't know why and how the animosity came to be, and thus cannot judge whose side Justice is on (maybe it's nobody's). I was especially struck by the author's sadness and resignation that in-depth investigation journalism has diminished significantly since 2008, a startlingly worrying fact given that good reporting is especially necessary in this age of false information and diminishing communities.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

After I finished reading A Disappearance in Damascus, I felt such an overwhelming feeling of sadness. Deborah Campbell has effectively captured the current political situation as it exists in Syria and Iraq. This book has won the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction, the Freedom to Read Award, and the Hubert Evans Prize. It was also named a New York Times Editors' Choice and Christian Science Monitor Monitor's Pick as well as Best Book of the Year designation by numerous magazines and publications.

In 2007, Deborah, a Canadian journalist, arrived at the border between Iraq and Syria as thousands of refugees sought relief in Syria from the chaos in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s government. She wanted to write about the experiences of individuals as opposed to the general exodus that most news outlets were covering.

Deborah successfully acquired the services of Ahlam, a well regarded Iraqi “fixer”. Foreigners who want to establish connections in Middle Eastern countries often rely on the “fixer” to help them relate to the local population as well as to the authorities. Fixers are trustworthy individuals who help translate and navigate the complex world that exists in the Middle East.

Ahlam had worked with American forces in Iraq along with her brother. She spoke fluent English. She and Deborah quickly became friends. Ahlam had become the unofficial leader of Iraq’s refugee community in Syria, and was determined to help make a positive difference in people’s lives. She sincerely hoped to help build a better future in the area. When Ahlam suddenly disappeared after authorities visited her home, Deborah and Ahlam’s many friends set to work to try and find Ahlam.

Deborah Campbell’s powerful account of her experiences in Syria, as well as her astute summation of the causes of the chaotic situation that currently exists there, are unforgettable. A sense of frustration and hopelessness is palpable. This is a story of courage, friendship, the dangers faced by reporters, and the devastating effects of war on the civilian population. During a conversation with a Western gentleman, Campbell reflects on the war and states, “This will end badly.” In response, the gentleman tells Campbell, “This. Will. Never. End”. Frightening...

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was no longer afraid. Go ahead. Follow me around. Arrest me. I realized I could accept many things. I could accept not fulfilling whatever ambitions had landed me here in the first place. I could accept the knowledge that nothing I wrote or would ever write would change a thing and that the world would continue to create and destroy and create and destroy as it always did. I could accept living without a relationship. I would still be okay. What I could not accept was Ahlam being gone. It was unthinkable that she had been missing for almost seven weeks. Unthinkable that she could be lost and never heard from again. Unthinkable that I could do nothing.

From the title and my vague knowledge that A Disappearance in Damascus involved refugees, I somehow thought that this book was about the Syrians who have been desperately fleeing their war-ravaged country for the past several years; but that's not what it's about at all. From the early pages, I thought it had something to do with the conditions that led to Syria's current meltdown; but it's not really about that either. Here's what it is about: In 2007, Canadian investigative journalist Deborah Campbell went undercover into Damascus in order to interview the Iraqi refugees that the Syrian government had accepted; as the only country in the Middle East that had been willing to accept those Iraqis who were trying to flee the chaos left in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein's ouster, Syria's resources were strained to breaking, and Campbell was interested to learn how the refugees were faring there. As is the regular practise for foreign journalists, Campbell discreetly hired a local fixer (Ahlam, who happened to be an Iraqi refugee herself) and the relationship between the two women transcended the professional into mutual admiration and true friendship. When Campbell eventually witnessed Ahlam being arrested by the secret police (on a return trip when Campbell was starting a followup piece), the reporter feared that she was responsible for Ahlam's situation, began to worry that her own cover had been blown, and resolved to follow Ahlam's own example of disregarding her own safety in the pursuit of justice. This wasn't the book that I thought I was going to read, but I wasn't entirely disappointed by what I found here.

The best part of this book is getting to know Ahlam: as the daughter of a wealthy village leader growing up on the outskirts of Baghdad, Ahlam might have been expected to toil on the family fields until her marriage as a young teenager; like all the other local girls. Although they were from a conservative Muslim family, Ahlam's father encouraged her to attend village meetings against the protests of the other men present, and when she made it her wish, he allowed her to attend high school (the first girl from the area to do so) and then university (the first girl or boy to do so). When Ahlam found herself – a wife and mother by now – back at the family home during the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, she used both her education and her father's diplomatic example in order to liase with the Americans and get information from them about dead and missing locals. After the Americans left and Ahlam had been branded a traitor for her dealings with them, she was forced to flee Iraq, and ended up in the Little Baghdad neighbourhood of Damascus. Here she used her organisation skills to coordinate emergency supplies for her fellow refugees, started a school out of her apartment, and to earn the cash to support her family, she surreptitiously acted as a fixer for foreign journalists. That's the best part, but the weakest part were the infrequent snippets of biographical information from Campbell's own life (I imagine an editor somewhere saying that if the real heart of this book is the friendship between two women, then both women must be characters in it), and she's so guarded with her own biography that it was plain awkward to read a brief unhappy childhood story of her own plunked down amid the rich detail of Ahlam's childhood, and the continuing sketchy details of her dying relationship with her longtime boyfriend back home felt like none of my business (which it's not anyway).

Campbell was in a unique place in history at the time of this narrative, but although this book could well have been about the factors that led to Syria's present day chaos, she chose instead to limit herself to the story of meeting Ahlam, working with her, and after Ahlam's disappearance, what Campbell did to get information about her friend's whereabouts; hopefully, effecting her release. I know better than to complain about an author not writing the book I wanted, but this has the feel of an opportunity lost ; unique knowledge squandered. Aside from some dismissive descriptions of the American mercenaries and hotshot journos with whom she crossed paths, Campbell shared but a few historical nuggets:

It was at Camp Bucca, through which a hundred thousand prisoners passed, that the future leaders of Islamic State met. Thrown together in numbers too large to supervise, their incarceration provided an ideal opportunity to forge bonds and spend time conspiring under the oblivious gaze of the Americans who had inadvertently brought them together. Indeed, without the American prisons in Iraq, Islamic State would not exist.

Although it wasn't obvious from A Disappearance in Damascus, in an interview with the CBC Campbell said that after the events of the book she had an existential crisis about her career: what was the point of writing these articles if the world continues on its destructive path? From the interview:

Shortly after I decided to start writing again, I ran into a writer. I told him about my despair, about the inability of writing to change the world. He said that the point of writing isn't to change the world. It's to keep the truth alive.

And it's this quote that made me reconsider the whole reading experience and bump my estimation of the work from three to four stars: I can't shake the feeling that this isn't the book it might have been, but it certainly represents a valuable piece of the entire truth, and in that sense, it's important. Written in an informal tone, this isn't a hard or dense book to read, and as the story of two extraordinary women who work for truth and justice, the story itself is intriguing.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book to better understand what is happening in Syria right now; I didn't realize it would be such an effortless, intriguing, beautiful read. I actually learned much more about Iraq than I did Syria, as the story follows refugees from the 2003 Iraq War who flee the crumbling civic institutions there for Syria - and one in particular, a woman named Ahlam, a "fixer" for international journalists and human rights organizations. Because the author, Deborah Campbell, has decided to personalize her account of travelling to Damascus and meeting Ahlam, the story is so much richer and relatable than it would be otherwise. Campbell gives the kind of detail about Damascus that allows the reader to feel at home in the book, while not weighing it down with too much description. This is non-fiction, but the narrative style makes it as smooth as any novel. A favourite read of the year.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reads like historical fiction, but it's non-fiction. It serves as a review of the events of the Iraq war using Campbell's friends/acquaintances to tell the story. It gives a behind the scenes view of the reporters' lives and the people they used as "fixers" to gain access to the Iraqi/Syrian people. Campbell becomes close friends with one fixer who is arrested as she watched. To Campbell's credit, she puts her own life in danger to find her friend.

[Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Not only did he surprise me by being a harsh critic of the war, which he saw as a money-making venture for the likes of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld after a kind of mafia-style falling-out with their old friend Saddam, but he said something else that stayed with me.
I said something about the war: 'This will end badly.' He fixed me with an unblinking gaze, as if to compel me to remember, and answered: 'This. Will. Never. End.'"

[Dorothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a must read for anyone interested in the Middle East. Campbell writes a page-turning mystery while explaining the complex and nuanced political situations in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon with exceptional clarity. The people are real and fully-realized.

[Carol Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This account of a journalist's stay in Damascus in 2007 and 2oo8 and the disappearance of her fixer, Ahlam, reads like a novel by Graham Greene. Deborah Campbell already was a famous Canadian journalist who had a great deal of experience in the Middle East and had reported for Harpers, The Nation, and The Economist. One million Iraqi refugees had poured into Syria, and she wanted to write about them. Ahlam was an educated refugee who spent much of her time helping other refugees. The two women became friends as well as coworkers.

Then, in 2008, the Syrian police arrested Ahlam and she disappeared into the country's hidden prison system.

Deborah Campbell was determined to find her.

Campbell provides a considerable amount of background about Iraq and Syria, putting the story into an understandable context.

This is an excellent book, journalism at its best. Campbell, however, was heartbroken to learn that even the best journalism wasn't going to change anything.

If you want to know more about Iraq and Syria, this is a more than readable way to learn.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think what I appreciated the about the book most was the stories of the Iraqi refugee in Syria. The author, a reporter, was writing an investigative piece "undercover" and met Ahlam , her guide or "fixer". The two became friends. Ahlam then disappears. The book was fluid and moved fairly quickly and was easily understandable. While all the people in the story were vividly described, what wasn't was the "friendship" between the author and Ahlam. I just didn't see the connection, the emotional sharing. The author is very distressed when Ahlam is missing, and is frantic in her search for her. At the end of the book, I just felt their relationship may have been more one-sided that the author would like us to believe.

[Melisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very readable and will give a good and interesting back ground to middle east recent events. The friendship between the two women and their stories are compelling, especially Ahlam.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

And interesting true story that gives some insight into the crisis in Syria. Even more interesting is the relationship between a journalist and the woman she befriends through research.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This is a powerful book. It's about so many things. Syria and Iraq post-Iraq war. The people, regular people, dealing with all the blowback. In particular, one woman who managed to carve out a niche for herself as a fixer for foreign journalists, but also as a pillar of the community, such as it was, of displaced/refugee Iraqis in Syria. This is really an outstanding piece of work. You get a sense of how regular people are affected by what's going on there. Also, there are some frightening parallels to the direction the US is going now (although truly incomparable at this point): the rounding up of all *insert particular religious or ethnic group* in the name of security. Yes, this is what was happening in post-war Iraq (not really post-war though, it's an on-going war), and now the US is moving to an immigration policy that mirrors this. The idea that an entire group of people could be guilty, just by virtue of their membership in that group is so...I don't know...18th century? Or mid-20th century? Anyway, it's something some humans are having a hard time getting over.

This book shows how these people are just people! Yes, some bad ones, but mostly good. It also, however briefly, shows how hard it can be for these refugees to adjust to life after they have resettled, whether it's the US or Canada. PTSD is not just for soliders. Let's have some patience, compassion and love for these people. They have been through things we can not imagine or understand or expect to have to deal with. Yet.

[Allen Batchelar · Rating 5 out of 5]

To quote a review which I find very accurate:

"“[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

Having lived and worked in both Damascus and Baghdad and having strong opinions on the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, I found this book interesting and informative. I could relate to much of the narrative. What I found informative and sad was how that I'll-advised action affected ordinary people and following the law of unintended consequences spread chaos throughout the region. As Ms. Campbell accurately points out, most Iraqis had a decent life if they avoided politics.
The book quotes an expert as saying the chaos, once released will never end. Let's hope that turns out to be false.

[Rosemary E Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Disappearance in Damascus is a wonderfully informative, engaging, and effortless read. I began this book knowing next-to-nothing about modern-day Syria, and fearing I might be left in the dust of political nuances I could not comprehend. What I found instead is a compelling, ruthlessly honest story of two friends - the author who is Canadian, and Ahlam who is an Iraqi fixer living in Damascus. These two interact as friends anywhere in the world may do, but, given the fraught political situation in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, they appear at times frighteningly oblivious to the risks their friendship incurs. When the readers' worst fears are confirmed, and Ahlam goes missing, the author's dread becomes our dread: is Ahlam alive or dead, and what role has the author played in her terrifying disappearance? By drawing us into the personal give-and-take of her deep friendship with Ahlam, and then leading us through the dangerous drama that ensues, the author offers a remarkably close look at what life is like today in Syria's capital, Damascus, for refugees and nationals alike.

[Adrian]

In 2005-06 reporter Campbell hired a fixer, a woman named Ahlam, to help her navigate the huge Iraqi-filled suburb outside of Damascus. Campbell learns what a remarkable woman Ahlam is and passes it on to the reader. A friendship develops between them and then Ahlam disappears after being interrogated by authorities. Campbell feeling guilty about her role in the disappearance stays behind to see what she can do locate Ahlam and get her released. The book reveals a lot about the condition of being exiled and the tenuous situation of the western reporter trying to maneuver among Middle East bureaucracy. Without revealing the result of Campbell's search the story ends mostly positive. Well done.

[Daniel Simmons · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rocky start -- the first few sections have a surprising amount of leaden moralizing about the U.S. invasion of Iraq and media coverage thereof -- leads to the absorbing true story of a journalist's oft-imperiled friendship with her fixer, an Iraqi refugee living in Syria (back when Damascus was a safer haven than Baghdad, a situation that's difficult to imagine now). This book is at its most compelling when it's focused on Ahlam, a steadfast pillar for her community even when that community is collapsing all around her.

[Rebecca de Winter · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredible story and one that pulls you in right away. I initially thought it would get dry in spots with narrative exposition about the Middle East but Campbell did a masterful job of weaving it together in a compelling manner. I thought the story petered out a little towards the last few chapters as it became clear her fixer was still alive so there was no real suspenseful moments towards the conclusion.

[Tanner Gerrans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very compelling and well written recollections of the life of a journalist in a war torn country, no knowing a single person to making life long friends in unorthodox ways. Happiness, heartbreak, fear, and confusion were all the feelings I felt during this read!

[Rhonda Lomazow · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling read Deborah brings us into a war zone & shows us the real people the life the humanity A book that will stay with you Highly recommend.

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book which combines friendship between cultures and the war in Iraq. Written by a journalist.

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars, rounded up. A Canadian journalist's nonfiction account of her time reporting on the Iraqi refugee crisis in Damascus (ca. 2005-2010) as well as a memoir of her friendship with a journalist fixer named Ahlam. Excellent writing on a subject near and dear to me. So much was speculated on in 2003 about the American invasion by the media that the narrative of that war has been convoluted and oversimplified since then, but Deborah Campbell uses her friendship to build out and clarify the full context of Iraq and its fate. I've spent the last few years of my life immersed in learning about the region and I still learned so much from this book. Highly recommend for the ground-level approach to explaining the Iraq War and understanding its far-reaching and devastating human effects.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

“You’re a free bird, lozah.” His pet name for her, almond. “Don’t let anyone put you in a cage.”

[Brandon Rheude · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a heavy, well-written, sobering tale. People can be heroic for only so long. We are who we are because our institutions are what they are. The main thing I learned is that cigerrate smoking is sometimes a good idea

[Landy Liu · Rating 5 out of 5]

It almost feels wrong to have been reading this book during the holiday season sipping on a cup of hot tea by the fireplace - it makes the book seem fictional. Unfortunately it isn’t (at least the descriptions of UN agencies look very realistic to me). While reading, I couldn’t help wondering, what could any individual do to change anything except surviving when confronting the monstrous mechanisms of a state? Journalists, activists and volunteers from outside come to war zone to observe, to help, to record, leaving the “fixers” high and dry after they get their news pieces, book materials, career boost and depart, while their fixers, among the local population affected, stay in anonymity and danger, still trapped in the war. I have the greatest respect for the author of the book, for risking her life to discover stories that otherwise would never be told - but even then, does it change anything?

[Scott Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I throughly enjoyed this book. Very well written and a powerful story illustrating the stupidity of American involvement in a Near East that the American ruling elite do not comprehend, and the evil of American immigration policies. Even more, it illustrates not only the struggles and catastrophes, but the courage and ingenuity of so many refugees. Why would America not want such people as Ahlam?

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Canadian journalist tells the story of her time in Syria,(2007), reporting on the Iraqi refugees in Syria. Campbell is helped and befriended by Ahlam, an Iraqi refugee herself, who works as a fixer- for Campbell in addition to caring for her family, running a school for girls, and acting as the chief for refugees needing assistance and information.

[Carolyn Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

After 2003 Iraqis started pouring over the border into Syria in an effort to escape the civil war in their country. Deborah Campbell traveled undercover to Syria to interview refugees and put a human face onto the war story she planned to write. The custom was for foreign correspondents to use fixers: "the local person who makes journalism possible in places where the outsider cannot go alone. Arranging interviews, interpreting, providing context and background, sensing with their fingertips the direction of the winds, fixers are conduits of information and connections .... Without these local experts ... most of the news from the world's dangerous places would not be known, though by the nature of their work they themselves remain invisible."
Invisibility might be the goal but as Deborah found out it was not always possible to maintain in a society which "encouraged" in often unscrupulous ways the turning of people on each other.
Deborah was put in touch with Ahlam, an established fixer with whom she established not just a great working relationship but an abiding friendship. During one of their meetings Ahlam was taken away and disappeared. No-one - husband, children, neighbors, friends - was told where she had been taken or why.
It's hard to read a book like this as I sit in comfort and safety, knowing that in other parts of the world people are suffering unspeakable things at the hands of other human beings from whom the ravages of war and the unending hardships of daily life appear to have driven the last vestiges of of kindness and compassion. Hard too is the realization that we are not being given the complete story by the media - and what could we do, even if we were?

[Tina Siegel · Rating 4 out of 5]

In many ways, this is the story of Canadian journalist Deborah Campbell, and the Iraqi woman who helps her navigate Syria's refugee community. Ahlam is presented as something close to miraculous: smart, resourceful, strong, generous, and endlessly brave. So her disappearance resonates long and loud through Damascus.

But this is also the story of a city - a country, a history, a culture, a people - that no longer exists. Everything takes place before Syria descended into civil war, when Damascus was relatively safe and diverse and cosmopolitan. We know how that ends, of course. Damascus - along with Aleppo and countless other cities - are gone. Campbell ends up eulogizing a time and place that captivated her, and to which she can never return.

It's a compelling story, made sharp and sad by the understanding of what comes next for Syria. Campbell is an excellent writer - clear and poetic at the same time - and she doesn't try to hide her personal investment in Ahlam's fate.

My one criticism is of the book's structure. Ahlam's disappearance, naturally, creates significant dramatic tension. But about 3/4 of the way through, Campbell begins interspersing her narrative with Ahlam's. It's a great way to give us a personal view of the Syrian security apparatus, but it also destroys the tension. We're getting details only Ahlam could know, which means she must have survived.

Other than that, it's an excellent book. I'm reluctant to say I enjoyed reading it, because it's incredibly sad. But it was certainly an immersive experience, and one I would recommend.