Minoui Delphine Translated French Lara (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First UK edition, first impression with full number line. Some very slight edge wear to top and bottom of jacket and spine, not price clipped (£16.99), no inscriptions, internally clean tight and square, overall a vg++ copy, looks unread. 199pp, illustrated, map endpapers. 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 of Daraya' is a powerful testament to freedom, tolerance and the power of literature. Scarce in this first impression.