Resumen de Testimonies of War: Reportages by Samar Yazbek and Atef Abu Saif
War diaries are often written under duress, and are either attempts at documenting events as they unfold or at narrating stories of how people survive under trying circumstances. This chapter argues that conditions of war under which authors produce their work dictate the form itself. When an author’s life is under threat, when safety is compromised, maintaining a diary evolves into the only possible option available to write about war. These journal entries bear witness to history as it unfolds. The unpredictable turn of events, fear of dying, displacements, refugeehood, forced expulsions, exile along with a feeling of responsibility towards history are all elements that have contributed to an increase of published work within this genre. This chapter looks at nonfiction narratives by a Syrian and a Palestinian who meticulously recorded their diaries during taxing times: Samar Yazbek, a journalist who courageously documented the early days of the Syrian war in In the Crossfire: Syrian Revolution Diaries (2012), and later in The Crossing (2015): and Atef Abu Saif, whose The Drone Eats With Me: A Gaza Diary details daily life, destruction, and death during the 2014 war.
