Escape from Aleppo

Escape from Aleppo
written by N.H. Senzai
published by Simon & Schuster (2018)

I found that it is only by being a little lost that you stumble upon the path that is meant for you.

I won’t lie. Aleppo is one of those place names that has been burned into my brain from the sheer number of times it has mentioned on the news during the ongoing Syrian conflict. It’s practically become synonymous with the war, and if you do even the slightest bit of reading, you’ll see that epitomizes the atrocities and horrors with which the Syrian people have had to live.

It’s also very recent. It’s not even historical; it’s current events. Which makes Escape from Aleppo a unique gem of a book. Aimed at a middle school/YA audience, the book doesn’t shy away from a serious, weighty theme that’s often relegated to conflicts at least a generation old.

The reader is dropped in to Aleppo in 2013, and we see events unfold from the perspective of 12-year-old Nadia. Nadia’s story primarily takes place over four days in October of that year, after she becomes separated from her family as they are escaping the city.

But the narrative alternates between that “present” and events from the preceding years that led to their escape. These “flashbacks” help contextualize the conflict for readers unfamiliar with Syria, Bashar al-Assad (and how he came to power), and the various other powers at play in the country.

The reader sees, through Nadia’s eyes, how Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi was the spark that ignited the Arab Spring revolts, which swept through North Africa and the Middle East and were the catalyst for war in Syria. We see how her own family was divided in recognizing the significance and importance of those events. We see how the situation in Syria slowly disintegrated over the following three years. We see how Nadia’s world was turned upside down and became defined by war and violence.

Corrugated iron sheets, pockmarked with bullet holes, sealed off sections of the souq, and the majority of shops and stalls had been destroyed – shriveled husks of what they had been. But what overwhelmed her most was the silence; it burned like acid through her soul. Her breath caught in her throat. It’s all gone, she thought. “Why?” she croaked, fists clenched. “Why does Allah hate us?”

The book essentially begins with Nadia’s separation from her family during an explosion. Fearing her dead, the family continues to flee toward Turkey. Nadia, left alone, awakes the next day in the rubble and is determined to make her way to the Turkish border, hoping against hope that she’ll be reunited with her family there.

Along the way, she meets a colorful cast of characters. With each one, she faces important decisions, but they all boil down to one: Can I trust this person? In a city turned inside out and upside down, where no one is what they seem, and where everyone is out for themselves, Nadia must find a strength she never before needed.

Escape from Aleppo is a revealing window into a part of the world and current events that unfortunately feel closed off and opaque for those of us on the outside – particularly kids.

We shouldn’t shy away from exposing our kids to serious – and very real – topics such as this. Quite the opposite, actually. For young readers who thankfully know nothing of the pain and turmoil of war, Escape from Aleppo is a great way to open the door on empathy and understanding.

The book also features a striking cover image that really gives you a feel for Nadia’s isolation and the chaos in which she finds herself. Over on this site, cover illustrator Kathrin Honesta shows how the image developed from sketches to final illustration (which I always find fascinating).