Book Review: We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria by Wendy Pearlman

We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria by Wendy Pearlman

Hardcover, 352 pages Published June 2017 by Custom House

This will be a short review as this is not my typical book and I am not sure how useful my thoughts on it will be. I choose to read this book as I am working on a novel right now that has a Syrian refugee as a main character. So this was the first of a couple of books and documentaries I read/watched in order to get a feeling for the conflict and the people. It taught first and foremost that even as a person who follows global political issues I didn't know 1% of what I thought I did. The author Wendy Pearlman is an academic from Northwestern university but she speaks the local languages and has years of studies in the middle east.

Drawn from interviews with over 300 refugees over a four-year span this is a really great way to get a full picture of the conflict and history in the region. Pearlman of course not only had to earn the trust of the people she was interviewing she had to pick and assemble the best and most important stories. Then she had to format them into a solid story. All this was well done. It is clear and concise which is no minor task when you consider that it is one of the most confusing and hard to understand conflicts going on currently. Russia, Kurds, Assad, Isis, Americans, and various homegrown aspects of the conflict. Lots of information to put together and thankfully it is well done.

I wish every conflict had such an easy to digest history. It is helpful. One thing it gave me was increased compassion for the refugees and the terrible position Assad has put them in. It is amazing that that piece of shit is willing to put his whole region in misery just so he had held on to power. The opposite of a leader. Unbelievable that people in the country continue to fight for him.

So yeah I learned many things and I hope it will be reflecting in the finished product of my book.