Critical Cases

"This is Hadi al-Abdullah. A few years ago, he was studying to be a nurse. But when war broke out in Syria, he took a different path. He chose to join antigovernment protests and tell the world the story of an uprising that became a civil war. Years of conflict turned him from an eyewitness into a frontline war reporter. This new role of his brought added risk, for himself, and for his friends and colleagues. Sometimes they would go towards the bombs, sometimes the bombs would come towards them."
—New York Times documentary "Dying to Be Heard: Reporting Syria's War"

"I read Critical Conditions in one sitting. It was so engrossing, vivid, and both painful and uplifting to read. Hadi Abdullah has managed to convey the agony, and the ecstasy of life lived trying to effectively report on the armed conflict in Syria. It is a testament to the human spirit, to the will to survive, and the despair of loss. Hadi is not only an extraordinary journalist, reporter, and witness, but a philosopher and poet as well. His text is brutal but also poetic and reflective. A wonderful addition to the literature on Syria’s long revolution, Critical Conditions is a perfect accompaniment to the film produced by another journalist (and rebel) caught up in the Siege of Aleppo,, Waad Alkateab's film For Sama."
—Dawn Chatty, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration, Oxford University

"Critical Conditions is a breathtaking chronicle of fourteen years of revolt, war, suffering, loss, displacement, and liberation. In this powerful translation, Hadi Abdullah’s narration of his death-defying involvement as a frontline media activist provides both first-hand accounts of pivotal moments in the Syrian war, and deeply personal insight into the contrasted emotions Syrian revolutionaries have experienced during their long struggle for freedom and dignity. This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the lived realities of the Syrian conflict."
—Thomas Pierret (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université)

"One of the most urgent and moving works to emerge from the last decade.... Critical Conditions is not only a personal diary but also a collective archive, one that bears witness to the lives, voices, and struggles of countless Syrians, whose stories often vanish in the noise and politics of war. Translation here becomes an act of solidarity, ensuring that these words travel and ignite new readers across languages and borders."
—Ibrahim Fawzy, New Books Newtwork

Critical Conditions is a gripping, devastating, and inspiring account of determination and displacement amid the losses and victories sustained by Syrian revolutionaries throughout their struggle to topple the Assad regime. Journalist, friend, husband, father, media activist, and writer, Hadi Abdullah describes more than a decade spent in motion and in limbo, displaced from his hometown of al-Qusayr to navigate the unsettled life-worlds of “liberated Syria.” With the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, as historians scramble to make sense of Syria’s dizzying recent history, Abdullah’s reflections from inside the unfolding events are an invaluable and breathtaking primary source. Alessandro Columbu’s vital and propulsive translation vividly brings these stories to life for the English-language reader.
—Max Weiss, Professor of History, Princeton University and author of Revolutions Aesthetic: A Cultural History of Ba'thist Syria