Janine di Giovanni – författare

As a senior foreign correspondent for The Times of London, Janine di Giovanni was a firsthand witness to the brutal and protracted break-up of Yugoslavia. With unflinching sensitivity, Madness Visible follows the arc of the wars in the Balkans through the experience of those caught up in them: soldiers numbed by the atrocities they commit, women driven to despair by their life in paramilitary rape camps, civilians (di Giovanni among them) caught in bombing raids of uncertain origin, babies murdered in hate-induced rage.Di Giovanni’s searing memoir examines the turmoil of the Balkans in acute detail, and uncovers the motives of the leaders who created hell on earth; it raises challenging questions about ethnic conflict and the responsibilities of foreign governments in times of mass murder. Perceptive and compelling, this unique work of reportage from the physical and psychological front lines makes the madness of war wholly visible.From the Trade Paperback edition.

An enthralling, deeply moving memoir from one of our foremost American war correspondents.Janine di Giovanni has spent most of her career—more than twenty years—in war zones recording events on behalf of the voiceless. From Sarajevo to East Timor, from Sierra Leone to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia, she has been under siege and under fire.Along the way she meets Bruno, a French reporter whose spirit and audacity are a match for her own. Their love affair spans nearly a decade and a dozen armed conflicts before they settle in Paris to raise a family. But Janine soon learns that a life lived in war is inevitably haunted. Bruno struggles with physical and emotional pain, and Janine, a new mother and wife in Paris, is afraid both for Bruno and herself and for the work that they do—and doubtful that she can hold their lives together.With stunning scenes of action, heart-wrenching accounts of profound love, personal loss, and redemption, Ghosts by Daylight tells the unforgettable story of a passionate life lived to the fullest.From the Hardcover edition.

_______________‘A moving book by one of our generation's finest foreign correspondents' - Daily Telegraph‘A terrifying account, soberly written ... Presents a stunning portrait of the anarchy, cruelty and overwhelming confusion of contemporary wars' - Independent‘Janine di Giovanni is superb - an extraordinarily brave war correspondent and a wonderful writer as well. What a combination!' - William Shawcross_______________The remarkable story of a woman on the frontline giving an extraordinary, personal account of the Balkan warsAward-winning journalist Janine di Giovanni spent much of the 1990s observing the cycles of violence and vengeance from inside Balkan cities and villages, refugee camps and makeshift hospitals. This was a conflict that raised challenging questions: what causes neighbours, whose families have lived peacefully for centuries, to turn with mindless brutality against one another? How do we measure the difference between bravery and cowardice in a conflict so morally ill-defined? What becomes of survivors when the fabric of an age-old community is destroyed? Searching for answers, di Giovanni brings the reality of war into focus: children dying from lack of medicine, women driven to despair and madness by their experiences in paramilitary rape camps and soldiers numbed by and inured to the atrocities they committed. In Madness Visible she paints an indelible portrait of the Balkans under siege and shows the true - human - cost of war.

_______________'Few writers can match her evocations of individual suffering in wartime.' - Newsweek'A gifted and humane reporter with a novelist's eye for detail.' - Literary Review'One of our generation's finest foreign correspondents.' - Daily Telegraph'Di Giovanni is superb - an extraordinarily brave war correspondent and a wonderful writer as well.' - William Shawcross_______________A collection of essays from the frontline from the acclaimed war correspondentAt the start of her career Janine di Giovanni was advised, 'Write about the small voices, the people who can't write about themselves.'For over fifteen years, she has been doing exactly that. From a near-abandoned hospital in Chechnya to bombed-out Tora Bora in Afghanistan, from Saddam Hussein's derelict palace in Baghdad to the inner-city barrios of Kingston, Jamaica, di Giovanni has covered almost every embattled place in the world and the people caught in its midst. Like Myriem, who lives on the West Bank, but can no longer use her farm because it falls on the Israeli side of the security fence; and Sia, one of the child soldiers of Sierra Leone, who talks blithely of shedding her violent past; and Abdul, who was imprisoned by the Taliban at seventeen for not wearing a beard.The pieces collected here begin with Algeria in 1998 and end with Iraq in 2005. They are vivid, raw and impassioned - and they make war terrifyingly real.

Like Imperial Life in the Emerald City, a defining, journalistic portrait of war in Iraq, Seven Days in Syria bears witness to one of the most brutal, internecine conflicts in recent history. Drawing from years of experience covering Syria for Vanity Fair, Newsweek, and the front pages of the New York Times, award-winning journalist Janine di Giovanni now gives us a masterpiece of war reportage, all told through the perspective of seven ordinary people among them a doctor, a nun, a musician, and a student. What emerges is an extraordinary picture of the devastating human consequences of armed conflict, one that charts an apocalyptic but at times tender story of life in a jihadist war zone. Recalling celebrated works by Ryszard Kapu cinski, Philip Gourevitch, and Anne Applebaum, Seven Days in Syria, through its unflinching account of a nation on the brink of disintegration, becomes an unforgettable testament to resilience in the face of nihilistic human debasement."

AN EVENING STANDARD, ECONOMIST AND DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR_______________''Gripping and brilliantly done'' - The Times''Unashamedly romantic, and combining quiet reflection with pacy narrative, di Giovanni looks at love with the same clear eye she brings to war'' - Economist''A vivid, heartfelt book that shows the extremes of life lived to the full'' - Tatler_______________A scorching memoir of love and loss from award-winning journalist Janine di GiovanniJanine and Bruno first fell in love as young reporters in the besieged city of Sarajevo. Years later - after endless phone calls, much of what the French call malentendu, secret trysts in foreign cities, numerous break-ups, three miscarriages, countless stories of rebel armies and a dozen wars that had passed between them - they arrive in Paris one rainy January to begin a new life together.The remnants of their separate lives, now left behind, are tentatively unpacked into their shared apartment on the Right Bank: Bruno''s heavy blanket from Ethiopia, a set of long feathered arrows from Brazil, an ash tray stolen from a hotel in Algeria, and Janine''s flak-jacket and canvas boots, still full of sand from the Western Desert in Iraq.But having met in another lifetime - in another world - ordinary, civilian life doesn''t come easily. War has become part of them: it had brought them together, and, though both are damaged by it, neither can quite leave it behind. And the difficult journey that follows, through their mix of joy and terror at becoming parents, Bruno''s battle with post-traumatic stress and addiction, and Janine''s determination to make France her home, leads to an understanding of the truth that people who deeply love each other cannot always live together.A searing, profoundly moving love letter, beautifully written, Ghosts by Daylight is a powerfully raw portrait of marriage and motherhood in the aftermath of war._______________''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

_______________''Few writers can match her evocations of individual suffering in wartime.'' - Newsweek''A gifted and humane reporter with a novelist''s eye for detail.'' - Literary Review''One of our generation''s finest foreign correspondents.'' - Daily Telegraph''Di Giovanni is superb - an extraordinarily brave war correspondent and a wonderful writer as well.'' - William Shawcross_______________A collection of essays from the frontline from the acclaimed war correspondentAt the start of her career Janine di Giovanni was advised, ''Write about the small voices, the people who can''t write about themselves.''For over fifteen years, she has been doing exactly that. From a near-abandoned hospital in Chechnya to bombed-out Tora Bora in Afghanistan, from Saddam Hussein''s derelict palace in Baghdad to the inner-city barrios of Kingston, Jamaica, di Giovanni has covered almost every embattled place in the world and the people caught in its midst. Like Myriem, who lives on the West Bank, but can no longer use her farm because it falls on the Israeli side of the security fence; and Sia, one of the child soldiers of Sierra Leone, who talks blithely of shedding her violent past; and Abdul, who was imprisoned by the Taliban at seventeen for not wearing a beard.The pieces collected here begin with Algeria in 1998 and end with Iraq in 2005. They are vivid, raw and impassioned - and they make war terrifyingly real.

_______________''A moving book by one of our generation''s finest foreign correspondents'' - Daily Telegraph''A terrifying account, soberly written ... Presents a stunning portrait of the anarchy, cruelty and overwhelming confusion of contemporary wars'' - Independent''Janine di Giovanni is superb - an extraordinarily brave war correspondent and a wonderful writer as well. What a combination!'' - William Shawcross_______________The remarkable story of a woman on the frontline giving an extraordinary, personal account of the Balkan warsAward-winning journalist Janine di Giovanni spent much of the 1990s observing the cycles of violence and vengeance from inside Balkan cities and villages, refugee camps and makeshift hospitals. This was a conflict that raised challenging questions: what causes neighbours, whose families have lived peacefully for centuries, to turn with mindless brutality against one another? How do we measure the difference between bravery and cowardice in a conflict so morally ill-defined? What becomes of survivors when the fabric of an age-old community is destroyed? Searching for answers, di Giovanni brings the reality of war into focus: children dying from lack of medicine, women driven to despair and madness by their experiences in paramilitary rape camps and soldiers numbed by and inured to the atrocities they committed. In Madness Visible she paints an indelible portrait of the Balkans under siege and shows the true - human - cost of war.

Winner of the Hay Festival Award for ProseWinner of the 2016 IWMF Courage in Journalism AwardShortlisted for the New York Public Library''s Helen Bernstein Excellence in Journalism AwardShortlisted for the 2017 Moore Prize for Non-Fiction Literature In May of 2012, Janine di Giovanni travelled to Syria, marking the beginning of a long relationship with the country, as she began reporting from both sides of the conflict, witnessing its descent into one of the most brutal, internecine conflicts in recent history. Drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught up in the fighting, Syria came to consume her every moment, her every emotion.Speaking to those directly involved in the war, di Giovanni relays the personal stories of rebel fighters thrown in jail at the least provocation; of children and families forced to watch loved ones taken and killed by regime forces with dubious justifications; and the stories of the elite, holding pool parties in Damascus hotels, trying to deny the human consequences of the nearby shelling.Delivered with passion, fearlessness and sensitivity, The Morning They Came for Us is an unflinching account of a nation on the brink of disintegration, charting an apocalyptic but at times tender story of life in a jihadist war – and an unforgettable testament to human resilience in the face of devastating, unimaginable horrors.

**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.

**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.

**Longlisted 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.

**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.

Die vielfach ausgezeichnete Kriegsreporterin Janine di Giovanni schreibt mit ›Der Morgen als sie uns holten. Berichte aus Syrien‹ eine ebenso unerschrockene wie persönliche Reportage über einen der folgenreichsten Konflikte unserer Zeit: den Krieg in Syrien.Über fünf Jahre dauert bislang der brutale Krieg in Syrien. Wie konnte er zu so einem aussichtslosen Konflikt werden? Warum sind über 4,6 Millionen Menschen auf der Flucht? Janine di Giovanni berichtet unmittelbar aus dem Inneren des Landes: Sie erzählt aus der Perspektive der Menschen dort, u.a. von Nada, einer jungen Sunnitin, die Assads Gefängnisse knapp überlebt hat, und von Hussein, der aktiv im Widerstand war, aber auch von Anhängern des Regimes, die sich Syrien nicht ohne Assad vorstellen können. Und sie zeigt, wie aus friedlichen Protesten 2011 einer der blutigsten Konflikte unserer Zeit wurde. Ein schonungsloser Einblick und ein über die Zeiten gültiges Zeugnis dessen, was Krieg bedeutet.Mit einer Chronologie der Ereignisse.»Wie Swetlana Alexijewitch gibt Janine di Giovanni denen eine Stimme, die finstere Zeiten durchleben. Ein aufrüttelndes und notwendiges Buch.«M. Kakutani, New York Times»Eine kraftvolle Reportage, mitfühlend und wütend zugleich. Unverzichtbar, um Syrien heute zu verstehen.«Booklist»Jede einzelne, individuelle Geschichte macht deutlich, welchen schrecklichen Preis die Menschen zahlen müssen, wenn man für die sogenannte Stabilität einen Diktator an der Macht lässt. «Guardian»Di Giovanni ist eine Kriegsreporterin, deren Mut allein von ihrer Hingabe für ihr Thema übertroffen wird.«Evening Standard»Di Giovanni ist die Meisterin der Kriegsreportagen – besonders dann, wenn die Sichtweise der Zivilisten gezeigt werden soll. Dank ihrer aufopferungsvollen Recherche, sind wir in der Lage das Chaos zu begreifen, dass die syrische Bevölkerung weiterhin in die Flucht treibt.«Kirkus Reviews

AN EVENING STANDARD, ECONOMIST AND DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR_______________'Gripping and brilliantly done' - The Times‘Unashamedly romantic, and combining quiet reflection with pacy narrative, di Giovanni looks at love with the same clear eye she brings to war' - Economist‘A vivid, heartfelt book that shows the extremes of life lived to the full' - Tatler_______________A scorching memoir of love and loss from award-winning journalist Janine di GiovanniJanine and Bruno first fell in love as young reporters in the besieged city of Sarajevo. Years later - after endless phone calls, much of what the French call malentendu, secret trysts in foreign cities, numerous break-ups, three miscarriages, countless stories of rebel armies and a dozen wars that had passed between them - they arrive in Paris one rainy January to begin a new life together.The remnants of their separate lives, now left behind, are tentatively unpacked into their shared apartment on the Right Bank: Bruno's heavy blanket from Ethiopia, a set of long feathered arrows from Brazil, an ash tray stolen from a hotel in Algeria, and Janine's flak-jacket and canvas boots, still full of sand from the Western Desert in Iraq.But having met in another lifetime - in another world - ordinary, civilian life doesn't come easily. War has become part of them: it had brought them together, and, though both are damaged by it, neither can quite leave it behind. And the difficult journey that follows, through their mix of joy and terror at becoming parents, Bruno's battle with post-traumatic stress and addiction, and Janine's determination to make France her home, leads to an understanding of the truth that people who deeply love each other cannot always live together.A searing, profoundly moving love letter, beautifully written, Ghosts by Daylight is a powerfully raw portrait of marriage and motherhood in the aftermath of war._______________'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

Winner of the Hay Festival Award for ProseWinner of the 2016 IWMF Courage in Journalism AwardShortlisted for the New York Public Library's Helen Bernstein Excellence in Journalism AwardShortlisted for the 2017 Moore Prize for Non-Fiction Literature In May of 2012, Janine di Giovanni travelled to Syria, marking the beginning of a long relationship with the country, as she began reporting from both sides of the conflict, witnessing its descent into one of the most brutal, internecine conflicts in recent history. Drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught up in the fighting, Syria came to consume her every moment, her every emotion.Speaking to those directly involved in the war, di Giovanni relays the personal stories of rebel fighters thrown in jail at the least provocation; of children and families forced to watch loved ones taken and killed by regime forces with dubious justifications; and the stories of the elite, holding pool parties in Damascus hotels, trying to deny the human consequences of the nearby shelling.Delivered with passion, fearlessness and sensitivity, The Morning They Came for Us is an unflinching account of a nation on the brink of disintegration, charting an apocalyptic but at times tender story of life in a jihadist war – and an unforgettable testament to human resilience in the face of devastating, unimaginable horrors.