Yazan El Haj

A novel in four parts, each no larger than a novella and each dedicated one of four “seasons”: The Father, The Mother, The Daughter and The Fiancé. The events are set in four cities (Damascus, Deir ez-Zor, Daraa and Tartus) and in two eras: the 1980s and 2011-2015. Like the four concertos in Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”, each central character takes their turn in the foreground while the others remain present but recede to the background. The result is a four paneled portrait of a Syrian family and their sociopolitical environment in two different eras.