![]() ![]() The narrator is Fathi Sheen, a writer fallen out of favour with the regime, silenced only to the extent that he doesn’t write any more. The first holds an ironic allure, for “the most beautiful thing in the entire universe is the silence that allows us to hear soft and distant sounds.” The pre-revolutionary roar of the title is that of the (capitalised) Leader speaking, and of the crowd celebrating the Leader speaking, and of those being beaten because they aren’t celebrating loudly enough a roar relentlessly repeated by radios and televisions throughout the city, accompanying the protagonist almost everywhere he goes.Ĭounterposed to the roar there are two forms of silence: of imprisonment and of the grave. “The Silence and the Roar” by Syrian novelist and screenwriter Nihad Sirees was written in 2004, long before the roar of revolutionary crowds, and the countervailing roar of gunfire and warplanes, filled Syrian skies. ![]() A version of this review was published at the Independent. ![]()
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