What Have You Left Behind?

Bushra al-Maqtari, Sawad Hussain

• Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781804270011
• eBook ISBN:
  9781804270028
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

In 2015, a year after it started, Bushra al-Maqtari decided to document the suffering of civilians in the Yemeni Civil War, which has killed over 350,000 people according to the UN. Inspired by the work of Svetlana Alexievich, she spent two years visiting different parts of the country, putting her life at risk by speaking with her compatriots, and gathered over 400 testimonies, a selection of which appear in What Have You Left Behind? Purposefully alternating between accounts from the victims of the Houthi militia and those of the Saudi-led coalition, al-Maqtari highlights the disillusionment and anguish felt by those trapped in a war outside of their own making. As difficult to read as it is to put down, this unvarnished chronicle of the conflict serves as a vital reminder of the scale of the human tragedy behind the headlines, and offers a searing condemnation of the international community's complicity in the war's continuation.

Table of contents

• Praise
• Title Page
• Contents
• Map
• SOMEWHERE IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH
• BUT IT FELL
• REEM’S TINY WINGS
• UNDER THE MANGO TREE THEY SLEEP
• A STORY THAT MUST BE PUT TO BED
• SIX METRES UNDER
• WE’LL BE RIGHT BACK, MAMA
• WHAT HAPPENED WASN’T FATE AT ALL
• DEATH ON THE PIER
• THE FISHMONGER’S DITCH
• A HOLE FULL OF NIGHTMARES
• A BURNT SILVER RING
• THEY HAVEN’T LOST A SINGLE THING IN THIS WAR
• HALF OF THE SUNKEN BOAT
• THIEVES AND RESCUERS
• HIS EYE SAW WHAT HAPPENED
• A LOCKED ROOM FOR LOSS
• DO I COVER MY EARS OR THEIRS?
• DEATH GAME
• I SAW HER… SHE WAS DROWNING
• THE ACHE THAT DOESN’T GO AWAY
• MY BROTHER’S SOUL DIDN’T SURVIVE
• IT IS US WHO LOST OUR MEN
• THE APACHE ISN’T LOOKING FOR FISH
• SALLY, WHERE’S YOUR SISTER?
• NO ONE WANTS TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO US
• YOU WOULD HAVE LOVED MY MOTHER
• THEY STOLE MY JOY
• DEATH BY DECEPTION
• NO LONGER OUR CITY
• THIS IS THE APOCALYPSE, NOT WAR
• ON THE EDGE OF A CRATER
• MY GIRLS, IF ONLY
• I WAITED BUT SHE DIDN’T COME
• THEY DIDN’T DO A THING FOR MY SON
• WHAT ARE SNIPERS MADE OF?
• WHAT GOOD IS PATIENCE?
• THE PIGEONS NO LONGER COME BY
• RUNNING ON THE DAY OF NUQUM
• THEY WILL NEVER GET ENOUGH OF OUR BLOOD
• I HAVE NO ONE LEFT
• THE DOG DOESN’T BARK
• ONE OF THEM LET OUT AN ‘AH’
• NOT A SINGLE PHOTO SURVIVED
• FOR REHAM BADR
• A LIST OF VICTIMS, IN BRIEF
• Illustrations
• About the Authors
• About the Book
• Copyright