Presentation of “Why Damascus?”

Tomás Alcoverro, a correspondent for La Vanguardia in the Middle East since 1970, is presenting his book in Madrid on April 3.

In his new book, journalist Tomás Alcoverro, a correspondent in the Middle East for 40 years, has brought together a collection his most significant chronicles on this region for the newspaper La Vanguardia over the last six years.

The presentation of Why Damascus?: Images from a fading Arab world (published by Ed. Diëresis) will be held on Monday, April 3 at 7:00 p.m., at La Central bookstore in Callao (address: Calle Postigo de San Martín, 8).

The journalist has been a witness to the history of the region’s countries for more than four decades, above all the wars in Lebanon from 1975 to 1990, and the American invasion of Iraq. With his attentive viewpoint, he examines places deeply enmeshed in merciless war, such as Damascus, Aleppo, Homs and Palmyra, the forbidden city, though he also focuses on important sites like Beirut, Egypt and Baghdad. The book therefore serves as an elegy for the Arab world, which is slowly fading away as the West looks on impassive.

With his usual mastery in describing the most human of details and most unlikely situations, the alleys of Beirut and the most unusual of characters, the author takes us on a journey in which we get a closer look at the least-known face of one of the most amazing regions in the world, one which Alcoverro loves deeply.

The journalist has been awarded the Great Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic Queen, with the highest distinction it bestows, that of Commander, as well as the Cross of Sant Jordi, and he has received the Godó Journalism Award, as well as the Gaziel, Cirilo Rodríguez and Ortega y Gasset Awards.