West Asia has always been associated with war, and every place we see bears the scars of it, yet art has always worked as a mirror to reflect these tragedies, sorrows, and bravery.

One of the largest and most deadly wars in West Asia is the war in Syria, which lasted for nearly a decade, and this war has been extremely crucial for Iran due to the involvement of Iranian forces in it. As a result, many books about the Syrian war have been released in Iran, with the majority of them focusing on the memories of the soldiers' mothers and wives; “Atharia” is one of these books which is written by Nima Akbar Khani and published by Soore Mehr. In this one-hundred-and-twenty-page book, the author tells the story of breaking the siege of a place called Atharia in Syria with a storytelling method and not as a documentary or memoir.

The story is well-constructed and is narrated in a conversational tone by one of the soldiers. Each character's tone is unique, and they don't talk in the same way, and the author's attempt at characterization is evident.

The young characters in this book are like any other young person. They smoke and curse when they are angry, they listen to music, they fight, and, most importantly, they enjoy life just like everyone else. The author didn't want to present a transcendental image of his characters, and he has given them the right to hate war and complain about it. While referring to the values and beliefs of the individuals in the story, the author reminds us of the horror of war through the narrator. He addressed all of the issues as though he wanted to convey that these were all aspects of the war, whether we liked them or not.

Source:Tehran Times