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I finished this wonderful book while reading in the art museum. It was somehow a contrast to this dark figure and background. I really loved this diary of the life in Damaskus. It reminded me of the souks of Cairo. It is the perfect description of Arabic daily life with all its facets.

This is how it looks like to read in an art museum. ☺️☺️☺️

The blurb claims that, in addition to the dangers of the surveillance apparatus, there is also a lot of beautiful, funny and poetic to discover in Grandpa‘s Syria.

For me the audio play could not keep this promise. There was no real depth. Not in the plot, not in the characters, nowhere.

Maybe the original book is better than its audio play adaption. More precisely, I hope so because compared with the blurb this was disappointing.

Sorry folks, I forgot to tell you about the audiobook‘s content:

“Damascus today: Bombs are falling. The 10-year-old Salima sits in the bomb shelter with her grandparents. Salima asks her grandfather to read from his old diary, which is how they get to Syria before the war.”

Heard it as audiobook. It was a cute fast read.

It was also my first book by Rafik Schami and although I could see it‘s a rather short story (50 minutes) I expected something more adult from him. It was no bad story but very predictable so that it, together with being a radio play, felt more like a being a book for children.