A healing journey like no other...A journey to enlightenment to say the least..The suffering of one man is the suffering of many.. This book has it all
I would recommend reading it any day and all times
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The Road from Damascus Hardcover – 5 Jun. 2008
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Robin Yassin-Kassab
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Robin Yassin-Kassab
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Print length368 pages
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LanguageEnglish
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PublisherHamish Hamilton
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Publication date5 Jun. 2008
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Dimensions15.7 x 3.5 x 23.8 cm
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ISBN-100241144094
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ISBN-13978-0241144091
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Product details
- Publisher : Hamish Hamilton; First Edition (5 Jun. 2008)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 368 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0241144094
- ISBN-13 : 978-0241144091
- Dimensions : 15.7 x 3.5 x 23.8 cm
-
Best Sellers Rank:
1,838,441 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 10,059 in Spiritual Literature & Fiction
- 25,113 in Religious Fiction
- 131,291 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer reviews:
Product description
About the Author
Robin Yassin-Kassab was born in Britain to a Syrian father and English mother. He graduated from Oxford University and travelled extensively, working as a journalist in Pakistan before moving to Oman where he now teaches English.
Customer reviews
4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
18 global ratings
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Top reviews from United Kingdom
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 December 2018
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 October 2015
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Brilliant, deeply nuanced about Muslimdom in Syria and the UK. What was Robin on when he wrote it - its so fantasticallly imaginative to the point of prophethood. Jaffer Clarke
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 April 2014
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allows you to get into the mind of the main character, a male. good ending to his struggles, scenarios highly relevant to current society
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 November 2014
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Very pleasant reading. Being from the region, it carries elements of sadness. May God restore us to the city we love- Damascus. Wonderful book!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 July 2009
I came to this novel with high hopes, being interested in the varieties of contemporary Islam, but overall was somewhat disappointed, although the author clearly has talent.
It narrates the spiritual journey of the central character, Sami, to find some identity and reconciliation between his Islamic ancestry and the militantly secularist outlook of his father. On the way, we learn of the stories of older members of his family, and hear debates on Islamic philosophy, mostly through the mouth of Sami's wife Muntaha: these were often moving and engaging. The main problem I had was with the central character. It need not have mattered that he was so utterly self-centred, charmless and immature (a 31 year old eternal student indulged first by his dead father, and then by his postgraduate institution - something highly unconvincing, knowing today's universities!), but he was also so BORING, lacking any interests or resources other than drink and drugs. I hastened through the pages in his company. Conversely, his wife Muntaba, seemed like a male fantasy - endlessly beautiful, reasonable, loving. Perhaps this book should be read as an allegory, not a realist work with convincing characters - but in that case the secularist mouthpiece should have been a substantial figure, not this overgrown child.
Having said this, the writing is lucid, and the author can both create good comic scenes (such as the arguments between Sami and Muntaha, or the funeral wake)and expound ideas. He will no doubt do better in future, but this is not yet a satisfactory whole.
It narrates the spiritual journey of the central character, Sami, to find some identity and reconciliation between his Islamic ancestry and the militantly secularist outlook of his father. On the way, we learn of the stories of older members of his family, and hear debates on Islamic philosophy, mostly through the mouth of Sami's wife Muntaha: these were often moving and engaging. The main problem I had was with the central character. It need not have mattered that he was so utterly self-centred, charmless and immature (a 31 year old eternal student indulged first by his dead father, and then by his postgraduate institution - something highly unconvincing, knowing today's universities!), but he was also so BORING, lacking any interests or resources other than drink and drugs. I hastened through the pages in his company. Conversely, his wife Muntaba, seemed like a male fantasy - endlessly beautiful, reasonable, loving. Perhaps this book should be read as an allegory, not a realist work with convincing characters - but in that case the secularist mouthpiece should have been a substantial figure, not this overgrown child.
Having said this, the writing is lucid, and the author can both create good comic scenes (such as the arguments between Sami and Muntaha, or the funeral wake)and expound ideas. He will no doubt do better in future, but this is not yet a satisfactory whole.
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 September 2008
Some people have interesting experiences in their lives, and some people can write interesting prose. I think that both are applicable to this début from Robin Yassin-Kassab.
A beautiful, introspective wife with a great amount of tolerance asserts her identity and newfound religious karma with a headscarf while suffering her husband Sami's journey of discovery via Damascus, the London drug scene, bereavement and a police cell.
Questions of identity are at the heart of the book. The modern globalising world and the friction of cultures all feed the book's plot. Islam (and religion in general) are ingredients. Characters from beautifully métisse backgrounds give a backdrop to the narrative, and serve to raise the kind of questions we must all ask ourselves in today's world. Indeed is the central character a British Syrian or a Syrian Brit (does it matter)? A Russian/Hungarian naturalised Brit focuses on the romantic part of his origins... a London raised arab, once into Public Enemy and black underground cuture, is now a "born again" Muslim with a tendency to mix reggae, rap and and street slang before re-asserting his piety with Koranic references.
No longer is it simple to just state your identity according to nationality or birthplace. People move around a lot (as does the action in the book) and their allegiances change.
You finish this book with a sense that the journey upon which you embark to find the answers is more important than the answers themselves (perhaps there aren't any), that Robin is indeed an erudite and fascinating person, and that questions of tolerance and creed are far better explored by reading these pages than by watching western TV news or asserting your identity as a simple equation of birthplace, nationality, and the colour of your skin.
A beautiful, introspective wife with a great amount of tolerance asserts her identity and newfound religious karma with a headscarf while suffering her husband Sami's journey of discovery via Damascus, the London drug scene, bereavement and a police cell.
Questions of identity are at the heart of the book. The modern globalising world and the friction of cultures all feed the book's plot. Islam (and religion in general) are ingredients. Characters from beautifully métisse backgrounds give a backdrop to the narrative, and serve to raise the kind of questions we must all ask ourselves in today's world. Indeed is the central character a British Syrian or a Syrian Brit (does it matter)? A Russian/Hungarian naturalised Brit focuses on the romantic part of his origins... a London raised arab, once into Public Enemy and black underground cuture, is now a "born again" Muslim with a tendency to mix reggae, rap and and street slang before re-asserting his piety with Koranic references.
No longer is it simple to just state your identity according to nationality or birthplace. People move around a lot (as does the action in the book) and their allegiances change.
You finish this book with a sense that the journey upon which you embark to find the answers is more important than the answers themselves (perhaps there aren't any), that Robin is indeed an erudite and fascinating person, and that questions of tolerance and creed are far better explored by reading these pages than by watching western TV news or asserting your identity as a simple equation of birthplace, nationality, and the colour of your skin.
6 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 August 2010
An ambitious and in the main hugely successful first novel, The Road from Damascus charts Sami Traifi's dramatic fall from academic and marital grace, and his gradual reconciliation with Islam, his Syrian heritage, and his wife's decision to wear the hijab. Yassin-Kassab's writing is culturally and historically astute, deeply informed by politics, theology and poetry, yet always fluid, personal and intensely imaginative. The inner conflicts of a secular British-Muslim are richly drawn on a canvas that stretches from a family secret in Damascus to the destruction of the Twin Towers, from a coke-fuelled spree of rebellion to the private space of prayer. Fundamentalism is satirised, but gently - a young Brother with an excitable belief in jihad is also a loving brother, brother-in-law, son and step-son. Intellectually the book sizzles, exploring not only the subtleties of Islamic thought but also the volatile power-keg of global ideologies in conflict; emotionally the narrative simmers with a warm, aromatic brew of observations and insights. Some minor characters could have been more satisfyingly developed, but the author does a tremendously sensitive job of conveying the complex nerve-structure of family relations. Sami's calm and elegant wife emerges as a powerful and independent figure, while Sami's need to come to terms with the loss of his father and accept his own adult responsibilities to others forms the heart of this compelling book. Highly recommended.
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 October 2019
Emotional and bi-cultural baggage sinks a young man who shuns London’s advantages, in this story by an author who can really write.






