Osama Alomar on the cover of the Chicago Reader this week.
“Osama Alomar describes the Syrian conflict one very short story at a time. The emigre writer looks for peace of mind in America.”
By Aimee Levitt @aimeelevitt, The Chicago Reader April 6, 2017
“When the writer Osama Alomar emigrated from Syria to Chicago in 2008, he and many other Syrians could already foresee some of the troubles that were coming. The country was in the middle of a severe drought, and tensions were high between the Alawite government and the Sunni opposition. But no one anticipated the brutality of the civil war that broke out in March 2011, and Alomar expected he’d come back to visit every two years or so. He felt so secure he left behind most of his possessions in his apartment in Damascus, including ten manuscripts ready for publication and a novel in progress. But the political situation was worse than he’d imagined, and the war was more violent.
“His apartment was destroyed by a bomb. He lost everything. “I was very stupid,” he says. He shrugs. “But I’m still alive.”
Alomar tells his life story with the same sort of irony and mordant humor that fills his fiction. His stories feature characters who unwittingly find themselves the butt of the joke that is life.” Please click here to continue reading …
Join us this weekend at our Chicago City of Refuge event 1:00 – 3:00 PM April 9, 2017 at Piper Hall on Loyola’s Lakeshore Campus.
To order your own copy of The Teeth of the Comb click here to be redirected to the New Directions Publishing Company page.