Brothers of the Gun

In 2011, Marwan Hisham and two of his working-class classmates, Nael and Tarek, joined the initial protests of the Arab Spring in Syria in response to a recent massacre. They walked hand in hand, pouring Coca-Cola into their eyes to alleviate the effects of tear gas, escaping from security forces, and cursing the country's president, Bashar al-Assad. Their sense of exhilaration was immense. A long-suppressed revolution has finally erupted, and liberation from the brutal dictator seems imminent. After five years, the three friends went their separate ways: one became an Islamic revolutionary, regime forces killed another, and the third, now a journalist working in Turkish exile, is trying to find a way back to the homeland that has turned into ruins. Molly Crabapple captures life in its beauty and chaos through more than eighty illustrations. Brothers of the Gun reflects the reality of the Syrian revolution and how it transformed into a global catastrophe and a comprehensive war. It is a story of pragmatism, idealism, sheer violence, oppression, courage, creativity, and hope, even amid war.