Beirut 

Between prison cells, the voice of Assala Nasri, and the memory of Syrian drama, Qatari writer and novelist Hamad Hassan Al Tamimi unveils his new novel The Avenger: Train of Joy, a literary work expected to spark wide debate across the Arab world for its bold blend of psychological fiction, political testimony, and Syria’s fractured collective memory.

Al Tamimi completed the novel in Chicago in 2024 while caring for his ill mother, but chose to delay its release until after the fall of the Syrian regime in 2025. The novel was finally published in Saudi Arabia in 2026 as what the author describes as “a testimony screaming in the face of history.”

From a University Classroom to Sednaya Prison

The novel follows Rani Khalifa, a Saudi-Syrian university student whose life changes forever after a discussion about justice and human rights inside a lecture hall at Damascus University.

What begins as an ordinary academic moment quickly turns into a nightmare, as Rani is arrested and sent to the notorious Sednaya prison, before later becoming a key witness in European war crimes trials.

His journey evolves from one of survival into a painful search for identity, memory, and justice.

More Than a Prison Novel

The Avenger: Train of Joy does not present itself as a traditional prison story. Instead, it explores the shattered Syrian memory and fragmented Arab identity through a narrative where politics intertwines with art, and realism merges with symbolism.

At its core, the novel asks what happens when a human being is stripped of his name, then forced to rebuild himself from trauma and exile.

Assala Nasri as the Voice of Survivors

Syrian singer Assala Nasri plays one of the novel’s most powerful symbolic roles, particularly in the final chapter inspired by her famous 2012 song “Law Hal Kursi Byehki” (“If This Chair Could Speak”).

Originally released as a cry against dictatorship, the song becomes in the novel a narrative key that redefines the meaning of “the chair” as a witness to suffering.

The empty wooden chair in Room 204 at Damascus University after Rani’s arrest, the cold metal chair inside the interrogation room, and the courtroom chair in Karlsruhe, Germany — where the protagonist finally confronts his torturer before international justice — all transform into living symbols of memory.

Through this symbolism, Assala emerges not merely as a singer, but as the voice of survivors and a representation of the courage of words in the face of fear.

Syrian Drama as an Archive of Pain

One of the novel’s most striking artistic choices is Al Tamimi’s decision to title each chapter after a famous Syrian TV series, including Drums of Freedom, Children of Oppression, Al Nadam, Gazelles in a Forest of Wolves, Unknown Constraint, and Waiting for Jasmine.

The references serve as a lament for a Syrian dramatic era that once shaped the collective Arab imagination before becoming an archive of grief and war.

The chapter titles are not decorative; they function as emotional stations tracing Syria’s transformation from hope into collapse.

Toni Al Shammari and the Question of Identity

The novel also introduces a strong visual and media dimension through its cover, featuring Saudi influencer Toni Al Shammari, a decision that generated attention even before publication.

Al Tamimi describes Toni as “Rani’s spiritual brother,” reflecting the same state of divided identity experienced by the protagonist.

As the son of a Saudi father and Syrian mother, Toni’s appearance embodies the novel’s central question:

Who are we when identity is scattered across borders, passports, and memories?
And can a person survive without fragmenting?

A Battle Between Memory and Denial

In the climax of the novel, Rani enters a legal battle inside German courts after smuggling documents that implicate Colonel Asim Al Jabouri, the officer responsible for torture inside the prison.

At this point, the story transforms from an individual survival tale into a confrontation between memory and denial, victim and executioner, and delayed justice against wounds that refuse to disappear.

A Story About Humanity, Not Just War

Ultimately, The Avenger: Train of Joy is not simply a novel about war.

It is a story about human beings reduced to numbers and their struggle to reclaim their voices. It is about art becoming testimony, and songs and television dramas turning into unofficial archives of a memory that prisons, exile, and fear could never erase.