Captive Shores , A Novel from The Reality of The Syrian Youth in Wartime

The reality of the Syrian youth in the time of war and its consequences and how their dreams took a different direction was the content of the novel ” Captive Shores” by the young writer Ahmed Yazbek.

Yazbek’s novel tells the story of a young man who studied marine engineering and fell in love with a girl and they set their heart on marriage. When the patriotic duty called on him, he valiantly received the honor of martyrdom, just like thousands of young men who have never been stingy in sacrificing everything in defense of the homeland and its security.

The novel, comprising  a hundred pages issued by Al-Ghanim Publishing House, was described by critics as very good. In its eighteen chapters, Yazbek showed a literary culture that he mastered with verbal shifts that mix between poetic language, legend and imaginative images that attract the reader strongly.

For his part, critic Muhammad Rostom expressed his admiration for the novel, because, as he sees it, it faithfully and honestly reflected the reality of the Syrian youth immersed in the love of the homeland and always ready to sacrifice everything for it, and expressed the national cohesion that we are proud of, praising the writer who, in his opinion, succeeded in tightening the dramatic line with an elaborate plot and narration that was dominated by poetics.

Regarding the novel and the motives behind its writing, Yazbek, a dentist, believed that his book is the second edition following his collection of stories “Salty Applause,” which came as a result of his experience in life and the concerns and emotions engulfed in it by sadness as a result of the tragedies of war in the various aspects of social, cultural and intellectual life.