The Shell: Memoirs of a Hidden Observer

Khalifa’s debut novel, about a Syrian political prisoner, entrances with grippingly journalistic detail and incisive psychological descriptions. Told in the first person, the book recounts atheist filmmaker Musa’s wrongful imprisonment as a Muslim extremist while returning to Syria from Paris. In the form of diary entries that he composes after his release, Musa tells of his experience leaving Paris and the monotony of his 14-year incarceration, including ostracization by other inmates and how he focused his attention on a growing crack on his cell wall that became a keyhole to the outer world. Khalifa vividly and graphically details the extreme torture Musa and others undergo. Khalifa (who was sent to a Syrian jail for more than a decade in 1982) captures what a long-term imprisonment feels like, both the overwhelming claustrophobia and the stray ray of light. Impressively fictionalizing his own harrowing experiences, Khalifa shines a much-needed light on a war outside the bounds of international law. (June)