The Vanishing

Author Janine di Giovanni
Narrator Suehyla El-Attar Young
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
Run Time 8 hours and 16 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Christianity, Religion and politics, Religious intolerance, persecution and conflict.

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What to expect

**Longlisted for the Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing**

'A tragic portrait of a disappearing world, created with passion and literary grace' SALMAN RUSHDIE

‘Janine di Giovanni is a humane and persistent witness’ HISHAM MATAR

'Profoundly moving' MARK TULLY
_______________________

The Vanishing reveals the plight and possible extinction of Christian communities across Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine after 2,000 years in their historical homeland.

Some of the countries that first nurtured and characterized Christianity - along the North African Coast, on the Euphrates and across the Middle East and Arabia - are the ones in which it is likely to first go extinct. Christians are already vanishing. We are past the tipping point, now tilted toward the end of Christianity in its historical homeland. Christians have fled the lands where their prophets wandered, where Jesus Christ preached, where the great Doctors and hierarchs of the early church established the doctrinal norms that would last millennia.

From Syria to Egypt, the cities of northern Iraq to the Gaza Strip, ancient communities, the birthplaces of prophets and saints, are losing any living connection to the religion that once was such a characteristic feature of their social and cultural lives.

In The Vanishing, Janine di Giovanni has combined astonishing journalistic work to discover the last traces of small, hardy communities where ancient rituals are quietly preserved amid 360 degree threats. Full of faith and hope, di Giovanni's riveting personal stories make a unique act of pre-archeology: the last chance to visit the living religion before all that will be left are the stones of the past.

Critics Review

A tragic portrait of a disappearing world, created with all of the great Janine di Giovanni’s passion and literary grace
Salman Rushdie
An award-winning war correspondent, with a particular expertise on the Middle East, di Giovanni focuses on the persecution and “vanishing” of Christian communities in the Middle East — the birthplace of the religion. Focusing in particular on Egypt, Gaza, Iraq and Syria, she examines the impact of Islamist militancy and tells the stories of the individuals and families affected
FINANCIAL TIMES, Best summer books of 2022
Janine di Giovanni, a former winner of the Courage in Journalism prize, is a shining example of the dwindling band of investigative reporters
independent.co.uk
di Giovanni brings a compassionate perspective to her narrative, interweaving complex, sometimes dense history with evocative vignettes and interviews
Economist
Extraordinary … di Giovanni has a fine way of capturing landscapes and people
Spectator
Janine di Giovanni is a humane and persistent witness who knows when to stand out of the way, has a unique ability to be both unflinching and tender and, most importantly, never forgets that war is always a human tragedy. And because the story of Arab Christians is also the story of the Arab Middle East, the book is a record of the painfully fractured region, the consequences of war and foreign intrusion, of which its peoples, of all faiths, but particularly its minorities, have suffered most
Hisham Matar
Profoundly moving
Mark Tully
Janine di Giovanni’s beautifully written and deeply researched study of Christian communities in Iraq, Gaza, Syria, and Egypt is important not only for what it reveals about those vital but largely effaced communities, but also for its careful examination of an issue that is far more complex – as so much is in the Middle East – than typically presented or understood … A compelling and powerful study
Sara Roy
Gorgeously written and deeply felt
Elle Hardy
Janine di Giovanni, a former winner of the Courage in Journalism prize, is a shining example of the dwindling band of investigative reporters
independent.co.uk
Ms di Giovanni brings a compassionate perspective to her narrative, interweaving complex, sometimes dense history with evocative vignettes and interviews
Economist
There could scarcely be a better person than Janine di Giovanni to write about the disappearing Christians of the Middle East
Irish Times
Di Giovanni writes elegantly, her reporting informed partly by being a Christian herself
Daily Telegraph
This is an interesting work of journalism that mixes personal reflection with a patchwork of reportage
Prospect Magazine
Each book of hers should be required reading … In addition to contextualising the conflicts, Janine shared the human stories … She exposes what we find so hard to confront in humanity
Tablo, The Secret Life of Writers
A moving and insightful portrait of the Middle East’s shrinking Christina population
Catholic Herald
The Vanishing is unique because di Giovanni is not seeking a solution, and indeed knows there may not be one. As a war reporter for 30 years she knows the reality of man … I like The Vanishing because it’s true, and people in the West need to read the truth, even if they don’t like it and can’t do anything about it
First Things
Praise for Janine di Giovanni: It is crucial to reveal the human stories behind the news – and Janine di Giovanni does this with heartbreaking eloquence
Financial Times
Like the work of the Belarussian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich, Ms. di Giovanni’s book gives voice to ordinary people living through a dark time in history
New York Times
Such reporters as Giovanni, who not only visit but also live (and often die) through wars not their own, are heroic
Guardian
Few writers can match her evocations of individual suffering in wartime
Newsweek
Compelling reportage at its best
Economist
Janine di Giovanni has described war in a way that almost makes me think it never needs to be described again
Sebastian Junger
Read this book and you may begin to understand what war looks and feels like
Spectator
Janine di Giovanni writes with unblinking courage about war, death, marriage, motherhood, loss, love, redemption, fear – indeed, about all the world’s most pressing risks and dangers … Her writing here (as ever in her remarkable career) is a great and important achievement
Elizabeth Gilbert

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