Book review: Writing revolution: the voices from Tunis to Damascus

"Writing Revolution: The Voices from Tunis to Damascus." Layla Al-Zubaidi and Matthew Cassel (eds.). I.B.Tauris. May 2013. --- Winner of the 2013 English PEN Award for outstanding writing in translation, this book brings together some of the most exciting new writing born out of revolution in the Arab world. Writers discuss history, determination and struggle, as well as political and poetic engagement with questions of identity and activism. What this anthology makes abundantly clear is that the young people behind these uprisings, though often optimistic, were not blinded by the fervour of revolution but were in fact acutely aware of the obstacles that lay ahead, writes Lewis Garland.