Where the Wind Calls Home (Maqam al Rih)

A poetic rumination that shifts through the land of the dead & of the living, between thinking & intuiting, & from the vast destructions of war to its intimate, embodied experience.  

Ali, a 19-year-old soldier in the Syrian army, lies on the ground beneath a tree. He sees a body being lowered into a hole—is this his funeral? There was that sudden explosion, wasn't there ... While trying to understand the extend of the damage, Ali works his way closer to the tree. His ultimate desire is to fly up to one of its branches, to safety. Through rich vignettes of Ali's memories, we uncover the hardships of his traditional Syrian Alawite village, but also the richness & beauty of its cultural & religious heritage. Yazbek here explores the secrets of the Alawite faith & its relationship to nature & the elements in a tight poetic novel dense with life & hope & love.

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Samar Yazbek is a Syrian writer, novelist, & journalist. She was born in Jableh in 1970 & studied literature before beginning her career as a journalist & a scriptwriter for Syrian television & film. Her novel Planet of Clay, published by World Editions, was a finalist for the National Book Award & longlisted for the Warwick Women in Translation Prize. Her accounts of the Syrian conflict include A Woman in the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution & The Crossing: My Journey to the Shattered Heart of Syria.

Leri Price is an award-winning literary translator of contemporary Arabic fiction. She has twice been a Finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature, in 2021 for her translations of Samar Yazbek’s Planet of Clay, & in 2019 for Khaled Khalifa’s Death is Hard Work.