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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Entertainment
Rafqa Touma

The Hair of the Pigeon by Mohammed Massoud Morsi review – an epic tale of a refugee’s journey

Composite image showing author Mohammed Massoud Morsi and the cover of his book The Hair of the Pigeon, with an illustration of a bird in flight.
Morsi’s novel follows a Palestinian boy growing up in a refugee camp in Syria, on the cusp of the Arab spring and ensuing civil war. Composite: Mohammed Massoud Morsi/UWAP

The air thrums with whistles and drums as people pour around corners, spill down streets. It’s March 2011 in Damascus, Syria, and revolution has arrived in the form of the Arab spring.

Palestinian teen Ghassan, stopping to watch the crowd of protesters, recalls a recent warning from a friend: “What the people want out there, they will never allow.” But among other onlookers, he claps along. Then he is grabbed, bound and forced underground into Syria’s most notorious prison – Sednaya, or Slaughterhouse.

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