| ISBN |
9781529012323 (paperback) |
| Dewey |
956.9104 |
| Author |
Minoui, Delphine author. |
| Title |
The book collectors of Daraya : a band of Syrian rebels, their underground library, and the stories that carried them through a war / Delphine Minoui ; translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud. |
| Published |
London : Picador, 2020. |
| Physical description |
196 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| General note |
"Originally published in French in 2018 by Éditions du Seuil, France, as 'Les passeurs de livres de Daraya.'" |
| Summary |
In 2012 the rebel suburb of Daraya in Damascus was brutally besieged by Syrian government forces. Four years of suffering ensued, punctuated by shelling, barrel bombs and chemical gas attacks. People's homes were destroyed and their food supplies cut off; disease was rife. Yet in this man-made hell, forty young Syrian revolutionaries embarked on an extraordinary project, rescuing all the books they could find in the bombed-out ruins of their home town. They used them to create a secret library, in a safe place, deep underground. It became their school, their university, their refuge. It was a place to learn, to exchange ideas, to dream and to hope. Based on lengthy interviews with these young men, conducted over Skype by the award-winning French journalist, Delphine Minoui, The Book Collectors is a powerful testament to freedom, tolerance and the power of literature. |
| Subject |
Intellectual life |
| Manners and customs |
| Books and reading -- Syria -- Dārayyā |
| Libraries and society -- Syria -- Dārayyā |
| Libraries -- Social aspects -- Syria -- Dārayyā |
| Syria -- Dārayyā |
| Dārayyā (Syria) -- Intellectual life -- 21st century |
| Dārayyā (Syria) -- Social life and customs |
| Syria -- History -- Civil War, 2011- |
| Additional author |
Vergnaud, Lara translator. |
