RETURN TO SYRIA – A Journey Through an Uncertain Land

  • "This could be the new Syria." A personal exploration of a historic turning point.
  • Her debut novel Vierundsiebzig was nominated for the German Book Prize 2024.

"For the past few days, I have been back on my phone. I wake up, eat, work with little focus, read the news. I call my father. My father wakes up, reads the news, goes to work, sits in front of the TV. Assad is gone. The regime has fallen. The regime my father – a stateless Yazidi Kurd – fled from in 1980. I know the country from visits to my grandparents in my childhood. A country where portraits of the dictator and his father hung on every corner, a country ruled by a family like a mafia clan. For 54 years."
A few weeks after Assad’s fall, Ronya Othmann traveled to Syria with her father: tracing the recent events in a country that seems foreign to itself. Everywhere, she spoke to people of all backgrounds – people, like her father, who want to believe in a future.

"One must admire Othmann's nerve, which was necessary for her participatory observation. And the storytelling ability that makes her breathtaking literary reportage what it is. She is a great writer." Die Zeit on Vierundsiebzig

Contact Foreign Rights
  • Publisher: Rowohlt Hardcover
  • Release: 14.10.2025
  • ISBN: 978-3-498-00697-6
  • 192 Pages
  • Author: Ronya Othmann

Our covers may only be used free of charge for press, event and promotional purposes in connection with the title or author. In particular, it is not permitted to use the covers in connection with other products, goods or services. The covers may only be reproduced faithfully in their original, unaltered form and must not be edited.

Buchcover von RETURN TO SYRIA – A Journey Through an Uncertain Land: Eine Reise durch ein ungewisses Land
Ronya Othmann RETURN TO SYRIA – A Journey Through an Uncertain Land
Portrait von Ronya Othmann
© Paula Winkler
Ronya Othmann

Ronya Othmann , born in Munich in 1993 to a German mother and a Kurdish-Yazidi father, writes poetry, prose, and essays, and works as a journalist. She has received several awards, including the Open Mike Poetry Prize, the MDR Literature Prize, and the Mara-Cassens Prize for her debut novel Die Sommer (2020). Her poetry collection die verbrechen (2021) won the Orphil Debut Prize and the Horst Bingel Prize. Her second novel, Vierundsiebzig , was nominated for the German Book Prize and won the Düsseldorf Literature Prize and the Erich Loest Prize.