September Translations Book Club - What have you left behind? by Bushra al-Maqtari

Join us for the Translations Book Club gathering on 9th Septemnber at 6pm at The Book Cow, where the month's chosen title is What have you left behind? by Bushra al-Maqtari (translation by Sawad Hussain).

In 2015, a year after it started, Bushra al-Maqtari decided to document the suffering of civilians in the Yemeni civil war, which has killed over 200,000 people according to the UN. Inspired by the work of Svetlana Alexievich, she spent two years visiting different parts of the country, putting her life at risk by speaking with her compatriots, and gathered over 400 testimonies, a selection of which appear in What Have You Left Behind?

Purposefully alternating between accounts from the victims of the Houthi rebels and those of the Saudi-led coalition, al-Maqtari highlights the disillusionment and anguish felt by civilians trapped in a war outside of their own making. As difficult to read as it is to put down, Bushra al-Maqtari's unvarnished chronicle of the conflict in Yemen serves as a vital reminder of the scale of the human tragedy behind the headlines, and offers a searing condemnation of the international community's complicity in the war's continuation.

Buy the book on our website or in store. Spaces will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. New members are most welcome.