Courage in Damascus
November 01st, 2016
Deborah Campbell’s second book, A Disappearance in Damascus: A Story of Friendship and Survival in the Shadow of War (Knopf Canada 2016), is one of ten titles longlisted for the 13th annual BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. The story revisits the 2007 international crisis when her guide and friend, the undercover journalist Ahlam disappears, was taken from her home in Damascus by secret police. Campbell was working in Syria to report on the Iraqis who had fled their homeland after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein; she was also assisting in the founding of a school for displaced girls. Campbell recalls her journey through fear in Syria as she spends months searching for her friend, leading to a courageous and hoped-for outcome.
Deborah Campbell’s first book is This Heated Place: Encounters in the Promised Land (Douglas & McIntyre, 2002).
Born and raised in Canada, Deborah Campbell has lived in France and Israel. Her work as a photographer and freelance writer has appeared in Harper’s, the Economist, Foreign Policy, the Guardian, New Scientist, The Walrus, amongst other publications. Campbell is the winner of three Canadian National Magazine Awards and received a B.C. Arts Council Senior Award for Creative Non-Fiction in 2000. She worked as an instructor at Capilano College and now teaches at the University of British Columbia.
BOOKS
This Heated Place: Encounters in the Promised Land (Douglas & McIntyre 2002)978-1550549676
A Disappearance in Damascus: A Story of Frienship and Survival in the Shadow of War (Knopf Canada 2016) $32 9780345809292
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