My goal with writing the book was to bring more global attention to this crisis. In my opinion, it is one of the greatest humanitarian crises in modern times, rivaling the Rwandan genocide and Bosnian civil war from the 1990s.īack in 2016, I was speaking to my agent about how nobody is writing much about it, and she encouraged me to look into writing a novel about the subject, which turned into The Heart of Aleppo. SADYE: What inspired you to write The Heart of Aleppo?ĪMMAR: I’ve been following the conflict for several years now as it’s developed. Whenever I’m asked for advice by new authors, I always share the famous quote from Winston Churchill: “Never, never, never give up!” One of my biggest dreams since childhood is to be a New York Times bestselling author, and I’m excited about continuing to pursue that dream. It was worth it all in the end because the agent I got is amazing and one of the most delightful people I know. I also experienced several hundred turn-downs from agents before finally getting the attention of my first and still-current agent. However, when it came out, it received tremendous success and was the second-highest 2014 seller for the publisher that year (I guess that’s a testament to the power of persistence). SADYE: Can you tell us about your publishing journey?ĪMMAR: It actually took me over three hundred submissions before landing a publisher for my first novel, Dark Guardian. He may have quite the resume at an early age, but there isn’t a boastful bone in his body - admire his accomplishments, along with his graciousness and humility, in our Q&A with him. That was followed by Ana Rocha: Shadows of Justice, a mystery co-written with a different friend (this one a detective), and, most recently, The Heart of Aleppo, a coming-of-age tale set in the middle of present-day Syria’s chaos. Habib started writing professionally in 2012, when he was just nineteen, and has published six novels in a variety of genres since then.įirst came the Dark Guardian trilogy, a superhero fantasy series next came the bestselling and award-winning Memories Of My Future, a historical-fiction piece co-written with a surgeon friend. It didn’t take him very long, comparatively speaking, to live that dream. Like many writers, Ammar Habib dreamed of publishing books from a very young age.

The Heart of Aleppo by Ammar Habib