A Land of Permanent Goodbyes

The book opens with a short prologue that introduces the book’s omniscient narrator: Destiny. Usually an abstract concept that refers to the unavoidable fate mapped out for a person, in this instance, Destiny has a voice, speaking in first person. Destiny will serve as the narrator.

Destiny addresses the reader: “You were born to die. In that I have no say” (1). Destiny highlights the weaknesses of the human heart, which detract from the achievements of the human mind:

Your chest is a vault for your jealousy, prejudices and regrets—emotions that you once released through sharp tongues and bare hands. Until your tongues and hands were replaced with swords and poisons-and now bullets and bombs (2). 

Destiny opens the first chapter, introducing Tareq, the young boy that the book will follow: “I like Tareq. I always have. The night the fair-haired boy came into the world, I swear I saw the moon smile” (7). Tareq was an obedient child. His parents, Nour and Fayed, had several more children after him: Salim, Farrah, Susan, and the twins Ameer and Sameer. The family lived together, along with Tareq’s paternal grandmother. It was a crowded but loving home, and Destiny adds that it was not their own decisions that would come to change their lives in 2013, but the decisions of others. 

Tareq is buried beneath rubble, screaming for his mother. The family’s house has been bombed, and he is trapped underneath a slab of concrete, unable to escape.

The narrative shifts abruptly to Tareq waking up in bed—it seems he was having a nightmare. He walks through the house to find that his family is perfectly fine. Farrah and Susan are watching cartoons; Sameer and Ameer, five months old, are sucking on their pacifiers; Tareq’s “mama,” Nour, is cooking and his “teyta” (Arabic for grandmother) is sipping tea. His father is at work at the family shop. Business at the family shop has been slow but, as Destiny explains, “the biggest worry hadn’t been business. It was the bombs that indiscriminately fell from the sky” (13).

Nour sends Fayed to get his brother, Salim, who is playing outside. Tareq gets his brother and then sets the table for dinner. The television is playing in the background, talking about bombs striking a residential area. The narrative then snaps back to the “nightmare” depicted at the start of the chapter.

Tareq then senses a bright light in his eyes—it’s a flashlight held by a rescue worker, Ahmed, a man in a helmet who has entered the bombed-out house in search of survivors. Tareq is disoriented. Ahmed calms Tareq down and then lifts the slab of concrete off of him (a detail confirming to the reader that the “nightmare” opening the chapter was in fact reality). Tareq is okay but worried about his family, not knowing where they are. 

Tareq waits outside of the bombed-out home as rescue workers look for his family. They find his mother, grandmother, and Farrah dead. The rescuers can’t find any other bodies, so Ahmed sends Tareq to the hospital to look for them: “With a wave, he closed the door on the kid that he knew he would likely never see again—this is what Syria had become, a land of permanent goodbyes” (22).

At the hospital, Tareq shows a doctor a photo on his phone of his siblings. Susan is alive. Ameer and Sameer are dead. The doctor takes Tareq to see their bodies; they have the same pacifiers that Tareq noted earlier when he was “waking up” from his “nightmare.” Tareq starts sobbing. His father Fayed arrives, and Tareq, hysterical, apologizes that he couldn’t save their family. Fayed comforts him. 

The rescue workers never found Salim’s body. The family assumes he’s dead. Fayed is taking Tareq and Susan to Raqqa, a city that serves as the “de facto capital for Daesh, al-Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham—or, as the world started to call it, ISIS” (31). There, the invading faction has created their own laws. Fayed has a brother in Raqqa, who previously said he would give the family the money they need to flee Syria. Now the time has come.

As Fayed, Tareq, and Susan get further into Daesh-controlled territory, they pass numerous checkpoints staffed by young, lawless, fundamentalists. In one instance, a guard demands money from Fayed, claiming he is on a list of wanted persons and threatening to arrest him. Fayed pays him; he has no choice. They speed away, relieved, after every checkpoint. They also don’t want to stick around checkpoints, which are targets for US bombs; although these bombs seek to destroy Daesh, they can’t discriminate and may also kill civilians passing through.

Details about the strictness of Daesh emerge. Tareq must fashion a hijab out of a blanket for Susan’s head, as Daesh believes that women should remain covered. Fayed has started to grow a beard, part of the Daesh uniform, and must throw out his cigarettes. Tareq has deleted all photos and music from his phone; this would be seen as heretic material.

They arrive in Raqqa and pass Naim Square, a place where Daesh carries out punishments. Here, they see three decapitated human heads on spikes. 

Tareq manages to conceal the sight of the decapitated heads from Susan, who is busy playing with her doll in the backseat. She has named the doll Farrah, after her dead sister. She tells Fayed and Tareq that she was telling Farrah they are leaving Syria. Fayed and Tareq remind her that she should not say this out loud to other people “because not everyone will understand” (45). The family must flee in secret.

Tareq describes Raqqa, a burned-out city destroyed by war. He used to visit Raqqa often, when it was vibrant and full of energy but war has changed that. Finally, they arrive at Uncle Waleed’s home. He ushers them inside, looking around in fear.