Nihad Sirees is a civil engineer who was born in the
ancient Syrian city of Aleppo in 1950. His other novels include
Cancer, The North Winds, and A Case of Passion. He has also written
several plays and television dramas, the latest of which, Al Khait
Al Abiadh (The First Gleam of Dawn), provides a frank depiction of
the country's government controlled media and has been wildly
acclaimed for its boldness and controversial nature. Branded an
opponent of the government, publication of several of his works was
forbidden by government censors. His subsequent novels were
published abroad. He left Syria in January, 2012, to avoid Syrian
security services. Since that time he has lived in self-imposed
exile in Cairo, Egypt.
Max Weiss is an Assistant Professor of History and Near
Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He is author of In
the Shadow of Sectarianism: Law, Shi`ism, and the Making of Modern
Lebanon, co-editor of Facing Fear: The History of an Emotion in
Global Perspective and translator, most recently, of Hassouna
Mosbahi, A Tunisian Tale and Samar Yazbek, A Woman in the
Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution.
"Sirees takes on, with piercing insight, the huge themes of
freedom, individuality, integrity, and, yes, love, in this
beautiful, funny, and life-affirming novel...[The Silence and the
Roar] indisputably connects to current events, but its value as art
and political commentary is timeless. Sirees has written a 1984 for
the 21st century."—Publishers Weekly, choice for Top Ten Books
of 2013
"In this short, satiric fable, a formerly famous writer silenced by
an authoritarian regime finds himself in a predicament where Kafka
meets Catch-22."—Kirkus
“With biting humor Nihad Sirees reveals the extraordinary
injustices of ordinary life under the oppressive rule of the
"Leader." This country remains unnamed but the richly rendered
story illuminates the hard reality of the many Middle Eastern
states in political transition today."—Shahan Mufti, journalist and
author of The Faithful Scribe
"A chillingly prophetic novel. In spare, razor-sharp prose, Sirees
describes the effects of authoritative rule on the psyche of an
unbreakable and irrepressible artist. Timely, powerful, and
searing."—Randa Jarrar, author of Map of Home
"[A] powerful, prescient novel."—Publishers Weekly
"The theatre of the absurd that is everyday life in a totalitarian
society is the subject of Nihad Sirees's urgent new novel, a
searing political allegory in the tradition of Orwell and Camus.
The portrait of a banned writer wandering the streets of a nameless
dictatorship that Arab readers will recognize all too well,
Sirees's book would be unbearably bleak if it weren't so
funny: its narrator's caustic irreverence is his rebellion against
the tyrant's roar that would reduce him to silence."—Adam Shatz,
Contributing Editor, London Review of Books
"Mixing the absurd with the erotic, Sirees's novel is both
political and delicious." —NPR.org
"The wonderful thing about Sirees’s small book...is that while it
is absolutely and specifically about Syria, Sirees has made it
large enough to incorporate your story as well."—Kenyon Review
"A dark, bitter satire about the leadership cult in an Arab
dictatorship."—Susanna Schanda, Qantara
"Called the Kafka of the Middle East, [Sirees] dismantles with
metaphoric touches all the apparatus of a system that compress the
individual and his freedom of speech."—France Inter
"[Sirees] lasciviously mocks with a caustic irony the one he names
'the leader.'"—Le Journal du Dimanche
"Sirees’ novel can, and should, challenge us to expand our
definition of what is personal, and move us to hear the stories of
those whose lives are altered by the impact of political
strife."—Think Christian
"It should be required reading."—The Guardian
"...it's Sirees's light touch with his subject matter that lends
The Silence and the Roar so much of its power."—The Guardian
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