Ramina Books, London, has recently released the “Black Forest” novel by Germany-based Syrian novelist Mazen Arafa.
The story takes place in a city, southern Germany, where a Syrian refugee lives in struggle from “war trauma”. The title of the book reflects the darkness in his spirit caused by the terror he saw during the war and how it still haunts him through nightmares.
One day, the refugee wakes up without a memory, in a safe “European city” that has no people, without knowing how he arrived there. He lives alone with illusions and surrealistic nightmares, and his unconsciousness manifests in worlds of madness and absurdity.
These worlds not only express the terror he’s keeping inside him, but also the cultural trauma of a refugee living in a cold, emotionless western community after he was used to the eastern intimacy and warmth in his country. But his temporary break outside the “mental therapy resort” helps to draw a real image of the social environment he lives in, in an attempt to explain his nightmares.
The protagonist’s fight with his terror eventually leads him to record his story in the “memories’ trees”, a real tree in the forest with a hole that contains a notebook in which passerby write down their stories.
The cover of the 206-page book, is designed by Yassine Ahmadi, and features a painting of the Kurdish-Syrian artist Khodr Abdul Karim.
