Never Can I Write of Damascus : When Syria Became Our Home (Paperback)

In 2005, teacher Theresa Kubasak and retired publisher Gabe Huck moved to Syria to aid some of the many Iraqis who found refuge there from the violence of US-occupied Iraq. They set up and ran a project to prepare young Iraqi refugees for admission to US colleges. (Sixty of their "graduates" won admission to colleges all around the United States.) Never Can I Write of Damascus is Theresa and Gabe's memoir of the lives they led in four Damascus neighborhoods, 2005-2012, describing the many rich relationships they built with Syrian, Iraqi, and Palestinian-refugee neighbors. The book's title is from a line by Syria's leading poet, Nizar Qabbani.

Never Can I Write of Damascus paints a uniquely intimate picture of daily life in the heritage-rich country of Syria in the period before and just after the 2011 eruption of unrest there. It gives readers sobering information about the heavy human toll, for Iraqis, of the US invasion of Iraq. The book contains stunning photos, charming hand-drawn maps, and other rich supplemental content.