From Aleppo Without Love: A true story of anguish and despair by a boy from Aleppo

by Amir Darwish

The book is an autobiography of the British/Syrian--of Kurdish origin--writer and poet Amir Darwish. The scene for it is Aleppo, Syria where Amir was born and raised up to the age of eighteen. Amir finds himself in a contradicting, brutal to children, hateful and constantly violent familial milieu. As well as the personal account is given here, the book speaks of life in Aleppo in the 1980's and 1990's where Amir lived and experienced such world.

110 pages, Paperback

Published May 26, 2017

About the author

Amir Darwish is a British/Syrian poet of Kurdish origin. He was born in Aleppo in 1979 and came to the UK as an asylum seeker during the Second Gulf War. His poetry has been published in the USA, Pakistan, Finland, Morocco and Mexico and in the anthology Break-Out. He has recently completed an MA in International Studies at the University of Durham. He lives in Middlesbrough.

Reviews

[Anthem Book Review · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amir Darwish is a British/Syrian poet and writer. From Aleppo Without Love is an autobiography that in horrific, almost unbelievable images details the life of Amir Darwish. The book covers Darwish’s childhood and early teenage years while living in Syria. From Aleppo Without Love is an autobiography; this first part which I read is only the beginning in a three part series. Each chapter in the first section is titled after the residences of the Darwish family. The Al-Ansari Mashhad home covers years 1982 to 1984 and tells of the death of Amir’s father baba. The second portion is the New Aleppo house covering year 1984 immediately following the death of baba. Al Martini house covers the years 1987 to 1994 and is where Amir suffers the worst physical and sexual abuse. The end of the book indicates to the reader that there will be a continuation of Amir’s teenage years told in the next installment. Amir also provides the reader relief in writing, “I will leave the reader to digest this first part before I give more episodes to chew on”.

Digest the first part, more like read and forget the first part, as there are so few images one would want to ever remember. The other two parts have not yet been published. Therefore, I can only give a review based on the first portion I read. In honesty, I don’t think the reader could tolerate an entire novel of what the first portion alone carries. I know I could not. The rampant sexual abuse and negligent treatment by Amir’s family is at times too much to take. As a reader, I was disgusted more than I was interested in reading the scenes of brutal abuse. And the scenes seem to be throughout the entire short book.

The book was not what I anticipated at all. Darwish describes the lack of parental love and familial protection throughout the entire memoir. There is not one family member that seems to love Amir or one another. Nearly everyone Amir has contact with has only a selfish desire to fulfill their sexual perversions or their malevolent will on poor Amir. It is clearly written throughout the book the conflicting lifestyle that most live; one second they are at praying, the next at the hidden rated xxx pornography theater. The cruelness that lives in the people that Darwish focuses on is pure evil from the very youngest to the very oldest. There seems to be such a sense of detachment on how to properly treat one another. No one is safe from the physical abuse and sexual abuse that seems to plague the Darwish home.

To make matters worse, the treatment of Amir’s sisters is simply horrifying. Not even Amir’s mother saves her daughters from the vile abuse they suffer at the hands of the older brothers. Yet, Amir’s mother was also a victim of severe physical abuse at the hands of her husband. Darwish describes in one scene a typical family night where together Amir, his mother and siblings are sitting bunched around the television set enjoying a Syrian sitcom. While in the room next door his sister is brutally attacked and beaten by an older brother. The young girl can be heard screaming, pleading for help from her mother. Instead of Amir’s mother coming to her daughters rescue, she encourages the abuse. Every female in the book is abused, beaten, belittled for no reason other than being a woman.

While in the New Aleppo house Amir accompanies his brother Husien and their mother in an attempt to collect money that Amir’s mother is certain Hasan the oldest son stole from a safe after baba died. This sections ending was a tad confusing. The event took place after baba died which was in 1984. It is a violent scene, packed together with Hasan physically abusing his mother, screams from Amir and his mother and then, what reads like a vicious murder with the mother’s brain splattered all over the home. Clearly, the reader gets the idea that the mother is murdered by her own son, Hasan. Yet, throughout the book, the mother is still very much alive. I’ve reread that section several times and always come to the same conclusion, the mother dies. There seems to be no value for life throughout the book, no loyalty or love toward mothers or women or people for that matter.

The boys throughout the book are no safer than the females. Often times a simple trip to the local street vendor to purchase fireworks would have a male sexually assaulting young Amir. There is no safe place for a female or a young boy in Amir’s Syria. And sadly it would seem, according to the novel that a mother is defenseless in providing protection for her children, when there is not even protection to save herself.

I kept waiting for the silver lining. I hoped at each turn of the page for a moment, an image of happiness, of love, anything other than mental anguish, that moment never surfaced not in imagery nor Amir’s memories of the past. There was nothing. However, when writer Amir Darwish was not writing about the rampant sexual, emotional and physical abuse he endured, there are sentences, paragraphs that are beautifully written that it provides relief from the brutal torment of the Darwish home.

Initially I had thought that the book was about Syria, sprinkled with family life. Syria is a brief milieu to what the books first section is about which is the Darwish’s family and their extended household. I cannot say it enough; I have never read a memoir that contained so much brutality and lack of compassion from one’s own family. It was hard to read and Amir makes that really clear from page one of the book. He forewarns the reader what is in store for them by reading this chilling tale of his life.

Although From Aleppo Without Love was an emotionally difficult read. With that knowledge, I still would read the second and third portion once it is released. I want to know when the relief came to Amir’s life and what happened to his siblings. Today, Amir is a celebrated poet and writer. So thankfully it is obvious that Amir was able to channel that terrible abuse into art and recover from the pain.

***I was given an advance copy from Publishing Push in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Publishing Push. Thank you Amir Darwish. From Aleppo Without Love is currently available online and in selected bookstores. Order a copy and read it for yourself.***