A review by coffeebooksrepeat
The Road from Raqqa: A Story of Brotherhood, Borders, and Belonging by Jordan Ritter Conn
5.0
How do you define Home? How do you find it?
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Riyad, the eldest of a highly regarded tribal family, whose dream until he was a young man, was to topple a regime one law and one court at a time in Syria but instead ended up follwing his dream by introducing and spreading his culture one lamb and rice, and hummus at a time in America at Cafe Rakka.
Bashar, the younger brother, the one who chose to be left behind, the one who chose to stay, whose intense love for tradition, culture, and country seemed to have made him deaf to the gunfights and bomb drops and blind to what is really happening in his beloved city, Raqqa.
Sometimes no matter how hard we try to talk ourselves and others into thinking that life is good, that we are settled, comfortable, and that we are “home”, circumstances would arrive right at our doorsteps at the most inconvenient times, in different forms — in knocks, in calls, in dreams.
I don’t know which brother I loved (or hated) more, the one who left and followed his dreams, or the one you stayed putting everyone in constant danger and fears? For until the end, they all had their own reasons — reasons for leaving, reasons for staying.
Reasons to fight to stay alive.
A pot of tea, a tray of pita breads, and a bowl of hummus of this non fiction debut that was so beautifully written, readers would think it’s literary fiction.
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Riyad, the eldest of a highly regarded tribal family, whose dream until he was a young man, was to topple a regime one law and one court at a time in Syria but instead ended up follwing his dream by introducing and spreading his culture one lamb and rice, and hummus at a time in America at Cafe Rakka.
Bashar, the younger brother, the one who chose to be left behind, the one who chose to stay, whose intense love for tradition, culture, and country seemed to have made him deaf to the gunfights and bomb drops and blind to what is really happening in his beloved city, Raqqa.
Sometimes no matter how hard we try to talk ourselves and others into thinking that life is good, that we are settled, comfortable, and that we are “home”, circumstances would arrive right at our doorsteps at the most inconvenient times, in different forms — in knocks, in calls, in dreams.
I don’t know which brother I loved (or hated) more, the one who left and followed his dreams, or the one you stayed putting everyone in constant danger and fears? For until the end, they all had their own reasons — reasons for leaving, reasons for staying.
Reasons to fight to stay alive.
A pot of tea, a tray of pita breads, and a bowl of hummus of this non fiction debut that was so beautifully written, readers would think it’s literary fiction.