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The Silence and the Roar by Nihad Sirees – review The Silence and the Roar by Nihad Sirees – review
(4 months later)
A Syrian author writes an award-winning novella in self-imposed exile, exploring in coruscating detail what his country has become at the hands of a controlling dictator. If The Silence and the Roar sounds timely, then it is – except Nihad Sirees wrote it in 2004. It's taken nine years and, sadly, even more devastating news headlines for this translation from Arabic to reach English audiences. It should be required reading.A Syrian author writes an award-winning novella in self-imposed exile, exploring in coruscating detail what his country has become at the hands of a controlling dictator. If The Silence and the Roar sounds timely, then it is – except Nihad Sirees wrote it in 2004. It's taken nine years and, sadly, even more devastating news headlines for this translation from Arabic to reach English audiences. It should be required reading.
The country in The Silence and the Roar is unnamed, as is the "Leader". The atmosphere is distinctly Orwellian; the people are "celebrating" 20 years of his rule and anyone daring to turn their back on the marches, the devotional chanting and even the television programmes – the "roar" of the book's title – is under suspicion. But Sirees's writer protagonist, Fathi Sheen, is famous so can get away with more than most. Not too much though: "Thought," he writes, "is retribution, a crime, treason against the Leader." The only way he can survive the 24 hours we spend with him is to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation with his girlfriend, or indeed have sweaty sex with her.The country in The Silence and the Roar is unnamed, as is the "Leader". The atmosphere is distinctly Orwellian; the people are "celebrating" 20 years of his rule and anyone daring to turn their back on the marches, the devotional chanting and even the television programmes – the "roar" of the book's title – is under suspicion. But Sirees's writer protagonist, Fathi Sheen, is famous so can get away with more than most. Not too much though: "Thought," he writes, "is retribution, a crime, treason against the Leader." The only way he can survive the 24 hours we spend with him is to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation with his girlfriend, or indeed have sweaty sex with her.
These passages are blushingly florid but it's Sirees's light touch with his subject matter that lends The Silence and the Roar so much of its power. When a doctor struggles to cope with the number of injuries inflicted on the people, he asks Sheen to think of a "name for what's going on here". Sheen calls it surrealism – and in flippancy he finds a truth. In the moving afterword, written for this translation, Sirees again turns to surrealism to describe the "roar of artillery, tanks and fighter jets" that even he didn't think the Leader would be capable of using. It breaks the heart.These passages are blushingly florid but it's Sirees's light touch with his subject matter that lends The Silence and the Roar so much of its power. When a doctor struggles to cope with the number of injuries inflicted on the people, he asks Sheen to think of a "name for what's going on here". Sheen calls it surrealism – and in flippancy he finds a truth. In the moving afterword, written for this translation, Sirees again turns to surrealism to describe the "roar of artillery, tanks and fighter jets" that even he didn't think the Leader would be capable of using. It breaks the heart.
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