''The Swamp'' is a novel by the Syrian novelist

Hanna Mina Hanna Mina ( ar, حنا مينة; 9 March 1924 – 21 August 2018) was a Syrian novelist, described in '' Literature from the "Axis of Evil"'' as the country's "most prominent".Words Without Borders, '' Literature from the "Axis of Evil"'', , 200 ...

, published in 1977. It is the second book of a trilogy inspired by the author's early life in the modern-day Turkish province of

Hatay Hatay Province ( tr, Hatay ili, ) is the southernmost province of Turkey. It is situated almost entirely outside Anatolia, along the eastern coast of the Levantine Sea. The province borders Syria to its south and east, the Turkish province of ...

that used to be inhabitated by Arabic-speaking people from neighbouring north-western Syria.

Plot

The story takes place in the

Sanjak of Alexandretta The Sanjak of Alexandretta ( ar, لواء الإسكندرونة '', '' tr, İskenderun Sancağı, french: Sandjak d'Alexandrette) was a sanjak of the Mandate of Syria composed of two qadaas of the former Aleppo Vilayet ( Alexandretta and Antio ...

, 'Saz' in Turkish, meaning 'Swamp,' during the Second World War. The

French Mandate The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (french: Mandat pour la Syrie et le Liban; ar, الانتداب الفرنسي على سوريا ولبنان, al-intidāb al-fransi 'ala suriya wa-lubnān) (1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate foun ...

had, according to Mina "in collusion with other countries", decided to hand over the Sanjak to Turkey. These events coincided with a severe economic crisis known as "Al-Kariza," which forced people to endure harsh measures to secure their lives, including collecting insects. Consequently and due to eating raw snails and the insufficiency of other food, the neighbourhood was hit with a mysterious illness, the municipality imposed quarantine on the infected individuals, out of fear that the disease might be

Cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

. Quarantining people, alongside the hunger and illness, did not have positive outcomes; hence, suicide spread.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swamp category:Syrian novels category:1977 novels World War II memoirs