The Syrian writer Samar Yazkek. (Credit: Astrid de Crolallanza)
At the start of 2024, while in Qatar caring for her daughter after a riding accident, Samar Yazbek, happened upon Thumama, a vast hospital complex in Doha.Its uniqueness? The building exclusively hosts Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip, all of them ill or severely wounded.Although she was supposed to travel to Sudan to collect the stories of women victims of rape, the Syrian writer canceled everything to stay at Thumama.There, she discovered the horror of mutilated bodies and shattered families. She stayed for four months — four months listening to and meticulously recording the unthinkable.Reading "A Memory of Annihilation" (Stock, 2025) is unbearable at times. It contains lengthy testimonies from about twenty Palestinians who "went through hell and returned." Missed this? Comic book artists pick up their...
At the start of 2024, while in Qatar caring for her daughter after a riding accident, Samar Yazbek, happened upon Thumama, a vast hospital complex in Doha.Its uniqueness? The building exclusively hosts Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip, all of them ill or severely wounded.Although she was supposed to travel to Sudan to collect the stories of women victims of rape, the Syrian writer canceled everything to stay at Thumama.There, she discovered the horror of mutilated bodies and shattered families. She stayed for four months — four months listening to and meticulously recording the unthinkable.Reading "A Memory of Annihilation" (Stock, 2025) is unbearable at times. It contains lengthy testimonies from about twenty Palestinians who "went through hell and returned." Missed this? Comic book artists pick up...
