A Dangerous Crossing--A Novel
Page 32
“Is that what you thought?” he asked. “That I wouldn’t choose you, if I had a choice to make? I overheard Vincenzo’s plan, I knew he wasn’t going to hurt you. That’s why I went after Rachel.”
“Why should I believe you? You’ve never thought of me.”
He muttered a protest against things he couldn’t deny—knowledge that had come too late.
“God knows that’s been true, Sehr. It isn’t anymore. It won’t be from this day forward.”
“What you said to me about Samina, what you did—I can’t face that over Rachel.” The words were quiet, masking the effort it took to say them.
But he knew what he’d done—he grasped the distance that stretched from Samina’s grave to this garden. He’d been given this moment to speak. He wouldn’t be granted another.
Now he didn’t hesitate, starkly aware of his need.
“I won’t deny that I care about Rachel, but she isn’t who I want, Sehr. I’m done pretending now.”
Carefully, he traced her cheek. His fingers strayed to her lips. The brilliant light in her eyes pierced him all the way through. Did he imagine the call to prayer? Or was he simply reverent, grateful for this unforeseen moment? And for what they might one day be.
“What were you pretending?” she asked.
“Not to love you,” he answered.
Acknowledgments
In many ways, this book is a continuation of the themes of Among the Ruins, the previous book in the Esa Khattak/Rachel Getty series. Both books examine the impact of authoritarian rule on civil society and both interrogate the plight of political detainees, though the crisis in Syria is by every measure worse. To fully appreciate how, I interviewed people concerned with several different aspects of it: refugees from the war, government and NGO employees, resettlement workers, sponsorship agreement holders, Middle East analysts, journalists and lawyers, and those who traveled to the Greek islands to volunteer. Many of the people I consulted must remain fully or partially anonymous, but they have my unceasing gratitude for contributing so much to my understanding of the war and the critical plight of refugees.
This was a difficult book to write. I couldn’t have written it without their support, and without their willingness to speak about deeply painful issues. To the people of Syria, may the lost and beloved country be restored, and may there be an accounting one day.
To Rawan and AbdelKader, for your immense bravery and generosity in speaking to me about your family’s journey to Canada, my deepest gratitude. Your thoughts are the heart of this book, and I pray for your family’s safety.
To Brenda H.—how can I begin to express my admiration of the work that you and your group of women do? I’m so grateful for the time you spared me, and so moved by the compassion and commitment of your example.
To my wonderful new friends, Rim-Sarah Alouane and Emilie Gascon-Léger, thank you so much for help with the French language and French names, and for your encouragement with the writing of this book. To Dr. Terri Sands, thank you for your very kind help with Greek customs and the Greek language, and for answering my questions. Thank you to my dear friend Farah Bukhari for facilitating this discussion for me. Thank you to the brilliant Negin Sobhani for educating me about the work of volunteers on the islands, and for your own commitment.
To my very old friend Yara Masri, who knows the pain of impassable borders far better than I do; thank you for your help with Syrian names and with the Arabic language.
Thank you to one of the most amazing women I know, Dr. Nozhat Choudry, for arranging such an important interview for me, and for your endless compassion. Thank you to my beloved Summer for sitting in on the discussion and taking it to heart.
Thank you to my dear friends Uzma Jalaluddin and Sajidah Kutty, for talking over the many agonies of this book with me, and for helping me steer Esa in the right direction. You truly are my sisterhood of the pen.
Thank you to my lion-hearted husband, Nader, for those long discussions about Syria, for all that you contributed to this book—and for everything you do, always. Your courage helps me find a little of my own.
Thank you to my incomparable family and friends for your continual encouragement and support. I don’t know what I’d do without you. And thank you to a truly amazing and selfless community of writers and readers with whom I’ve found a home. I wish I could name you all, but I do most sincerely thank you.
To the many wonderful people at Minotaur Books and the Nelson Literary Agency, thank you for everything you do to support my books and bring them into the world. To Hector and Kristin, especially, thank you so much for being there. And thank you so much to Catherine Richards and Nettie Finn for joining me on this journey.
To all my friends at No Exit Press/Oldcastle Books who have taken Esa and Rachel to their hearts—Geoff, Ion, Maddy, Claire, and especially the brilliant and lovely Clare Quinlivan—thank you for everything you do for me and these books, and for your hospitality. Thank you also to all the wonderful booksellers, bloggers, readers, and writers in the UK for an exceptional book tour, especially to Sue and Katherine.
To the beautiful and boundlessly talented Danielle, for the many ways you helped me write this book, for your unceasing patience with a year of difficult questions, and for how often you reassured me when I couldn’t find my way—my gratitude is endless.
And finally, to Elizabeth, to whom I owe more than I’m able to express. Thank you for being such a gifted and luminous editor, and for being the kindest, wisest partner I could have asked for on this journey. Thank you for valuing Esa’s voice … and mine.
Author’s Note
Though this is a novel that focuses on the Syrian refugee crisis, the crisis cannot be properly understood without situating it in the context of the ongoing war in Syria, begun in 2011. The war is often described as a complex conflict whose origins are unclear and whose peaceful resolution is unlikely in the near future. At the time of writing in fall 2017, the death toll of the war in Syria was 465,000, with 11 million Syrians displaced as a consequence of the war (5 million as refugees, another 6 million internally displaced). The refugee crisis is ongoing, with the Syrian diaspora mainly dispersed across the Middle East and Europe.
The conflict has been driven by a specific set of social and political conditions, beginning with the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011 in Tunisia and Egypt. The Arab Spring reignited the aspirations of the Syrian people for political freedom and socioeconomic well-being. Until that moment, the House of Assad had ruled Syria with an iron fist for forty-one years: a rule synonymous with widespread political repression, crony capitalism and corruption, flagrant human rights violations, periods of mass killing and destruction, and a prison system comparable to the Russian gulags.
A small spark lit the blaze in Syria: schoolboys in Daraa (Deraa) scrawled graffiti in support of the Arab Spring, and were arrested and tortured for doing so. Peaceful protests broke out in response, demanding the release of the boys, one of whom was killed in detention. The government responded to the unrest with force, killing and detaining hundreds, triggering nationwide protests calling for reform and the freeing of political prisoners. As the government’s repression increased, so did the demands of the protesters, leading to a call for the resignation of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
During the first year of the uprising, protests were overwhelmingly nonviolent and nonsectarian in nature. One year later, all of the major human rights organizations—including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the UN Special Commission of Inquiry on Syria—had charged the Assad regime with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The door to mass violence had been opened. When the conflict entered its second year, it became militarized and then increasingly radicalized as hundreds of rebel groups formed to fight the Assad regime. Many of these groups were backed by regional powers, each with an agenda of its own. Saudi Arabia and its allies were on one side of the conflict supporting various groups, while Iran and its allies backed the Syrian reg
ime.
As the level of violence in Syria intensified, culminating in the use of chemical weapons, extremist rebel groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda emerged, becoming key players in the conflict. It is in this context that ISIS, the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, first evolved. Initially, ISIS fighters broke away from the major Al-Qaeda faction in Syria and established links with the remnants of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. In time, they became a separate group that rapidly expanded its area of influence and control in eastern Syria, establishing a de facto capital in the city of Raqqa. One of the defining characteristics of ISIS has been its extreme brutality toward its perceived enemies, among them foreign journalists and aid workers. Especially heinous is ISIS’s treatment of Shia Muslims, Yazidis, Christians, ethnic minorities, and women. The ultimate goal of the group is the establishment of an ISIS-defined caliphate throughout the Islamic world. The rise of ISIS is a by-product of the war in Syria and has reinforced Assad’s narrative that the choice in Syria is between the continuation of his rule or that of radical extremist groups like ISIS.
There is also an international dimension to the conflict, with the United States and Europe on one side, and Russia and China on the other. As a result of divisions among the international community, the United Nations Security Council has been paralyzed in terms of an effective response to the mass violence against civilians in Syria. Russia’s role has been significant. From 2011 to 2017, Russia cast its veto on the UN Security Council ten times to block an international resolution of the crisis. Then in 2015, Russia’s military directly intervened in the conflict, tilting the balance of power in Assad’s favor and deepening the humanitarian crisis on an unprecedented scale, as embodied by the destruction of Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city.
When the conflict began, President Obama called for Assad to step down; yet American policy has been largely non-interventionist, ceding Russia and Iran effective control of the war in Syria. With a new administration in the United States, there has been no change in U.S. policy on Syria: the focus remains on defeating ISIS, without attempting to address the roots of the Syrian crisis or the war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Assad regime.
While there is no disputing that all parties have committed atrocities in Syria, in terms of scale and proportion, it is the Assad regime that is overwhelmingly responsible for crimes against civilians. According to the Violations Documentations Center in Syria, between March 2011 and September 2016, the Syrian government was responsible for 90 percent of civilian deaths during the conflict. Aided by Russia, the Syrian government has targeted hospitals, clinics, schools, and civilian population centers with a wide range of weaponry: barrel bombs, cluster munitions, mortars and artillery, and chemical weapons that have included chlorine and sarin gas. Beyond this, the opaque and labyrinthine prison system overseen by the Assad regime has been cited as carrying out killing and torture on an industrial scale that amounts to extermination. In Saydnaya (Sednaya), a prison near Damascus, thirteen thousand political detainees were executed in the period between 2011 and 2015.
With the conflict in its seventh year, the tide of the war has turned in Assad’s favor. Some international players see this as a development that could lead to peace and stability in Syria. But in light of the regime’s devastating human rights record, Assad cannot be seen as a guarantor of the hopes and aspirations of the Syrian people for dignity and political freedom.
Recommended Reading
For background on the Syrian conflict, I recommend the following works: Syria by Samer N. Abboud, Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War by Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leila Al-Shami, The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency by Charles Lister, and The Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy by Yassin al-Haj Saleh.
For more personal works, I suggest The Home That Was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria by Alia Malek; We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria by Wendy Pearlman; Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline, edited by Malu Halasa, Zaher Omareen, and Nawara Mahfoud; and The Morning They Came for Us by Janine di Giovanni.
Human rights reports on the Syrian conflict are also widely available.
Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic:
www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/IICISyria/Pages/IndependentInternationalCommission.aspx
Violations Documentation Center in Syria:
http://vdc-sy.net/en/
Amnesty International, 2017. Human Slaughterhouse: Mass Hangings and Extermination at Saydnaya Prison, Syria:
https://www.amnestyusa.org/files/human_slaughterhouse.pdf
Human Rights Watch, 2015. If the Dead Could Speak: Mass Deaths and Torture in Syria’s Detention Facilities:
https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/12/16/if-dead-could-speak/mass-deaths-and-torture-syrias-detention-facilities
Human Rights Watch, 2012. Torture Archipelago: Arbitrary Arrests, Torture and Enforced Disappearances in Syria’s Underground Prisons Since March 2011:
https://www.hrw.org/report/2012/07/03/torture-archipelago/arbitrary-arrests-torture-and-enforced-disappearances-syrias
Human Rights Watch, 2011. By All Means Necessary: Individual and Command Responsibility for Crimes Against Humanity in Syria:
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/syria1211webwcover_0.pdf
For updates on the Syrian refugee crisis, please visit the UNHCR’s Syria homepage at: http://www.unhcr.org/sy/.
ALSO BY AUSMA ZEHANAT KHAN
ESA KHATTAK AND RACHEL GETTY MYSTERIES
Among the Ruins
A Death in Sarajevo (a novella)
The Language of Secrets
The Unquiet Dead
THE KHORASAN ARCHIVES FANTASY NOVELS
The Bloodprint
About the Author
AUSMA ZEHANAT KHAN holds a Ph.D. in international human rights law and is a former adjunct law professor. She was editor-in-chief of Muslim Girl magazine, the first magazine targeted to young Muslim women. A British-born Canadian, Khan now lives in Colorado with her husband. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Acknowledgments
Author’s Note
Recommended Reading
Also by Ausma Zehanat Khan
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
A DANGEROUS CROSSING. Copyright © 2018 by Ausma Zehanat Khan. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein
Cover photographs: woman © Mark Owen / Arcangel; landscape © Trevor Payne / Arcangel
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-09676-0 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-09678-4 (ebook)
e-ISBN 9781250096784
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First Edition: February 2018