Robin Yassin-Kassab's guest appearances

Robin Yassin-Kassab

The Seattle Public Library - Author Readings and Library Events

Free City Radio

Alain De Botton

Henry James

Jeannette Walls

Sarah McBride

Ijeoma Oluo

Colson Whitehead

Luvvie Ajayi

Emily Dickinson

David Shields

Michael Eric Dyson

Ava Duvernay

Pete Buttigieg

Robert Thurman

Anthony Ray Hinton

Gretchen Rubin

OwlTail

Leila Al-Shami

Syrian-British co-authors Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leila Al-Shami discuss their book 'Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War'. -- In 2011, many Syrians took to the streets of Damascus to demand the overthrow of the government of Bashar al-Assad. Today, much of Syria has become a warzone and many worry that the country is on the brink of collapse. 'Burning Country' explores the complicated reality of life in present-day Syria, drawing on new firsthand testimonies from opposition fighters, exiles lost in an archipelago of refugee camps, and courageous human rights activists. The authors interweave these stories with an incisive analysis of the militarization of the uprising, the rise of the Islamists and sectarian warfare, and the role of Syria’s government in exacerbating the brutalization of the conflict. Through these accounts and a broad range of secondary source material, the authors argue that the international community has failed in its stated commitments to support the Syrian opposition movements. -- Robin Yassin-Kassab writes frequently for The Guardian and has contributed to Guernica, the Daily Beast, Al Jazeera English, and Newsweek Middle East, among other publications. He is the author of the critically acclaimed novel 'The Road from Damascus' and is a contributor to Syria Speaks. -- Leila Al-Shami has been involved in human rights and social justice struggles in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East, and was a founding member of Tahrir-ICN, a network connecting anti-authoritarian struggles across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leila Al-Shami read from 'Burning Country'