REVIEWS
the morning they came for us
Winner of the IWMF Courage in Journalism Award
“This is no small thing: it is individual stories, rather than victims counted in the millions, that reveal the terrible cost of leaving dictators in place for the sake of ‘stability’."
— Joan Smith, The Guardian, 29 February 2016
[ Full review ]
“This brilliant, necessary book will hopefully do for Syria what Herr’s Dispatches (1977) did for Vietnam.”
— Kirkus, 18 February 2016
[ Full review ]
“An unsparing account of her experiences in Syria over a six-month period in 2012, drawing on the stories of ordinary people embroiled in the violence.”
— Liam Freeman, Refinery29, 11 March 2016
[ Full review ]
“Di Giovanni knows where to look for stories and how to present them… She forces us to take in the war through all our senses, to know not just what war looks like but what it feels and smells like.”
— Denise Hassanzade Ajiri, CS Monitor, 3 May 2016
[ Full review ]
“A masterpiece of war reportage… The result is an unforgettable testament to resilience in the face of nihilistic human debasement.”
— WW Norton, 2016
[ Full review ]
“The power with which Di Giovanni delivers these scenes is blunted by overwrought prose, and as an impressionistic memoir, there’s little in the way of historical context or analysis. But that’s not the book’s purpose. Instead, it’s a haunting reminder of what the Syrian revolution, ultimately, is about.”
— Anand Gopal, New York Times, 6 May 2016
[ Full review ]
“In “The Morning They Came for Us,” Ms. Di Giovanni gives us a visceral understanding of what it is like to live in wartime Syria…The fact that much of the book’s on-the-ground reporting is confined to the early stages of the war only serves to remind the reader that the horrors she witnessed would escalate in the years to come — with still no end in sight.”
— Michiko Kakutani, New York Times, 23 May 2016
[ Full review ]
REVIEWS
GHOSTS BY DAYLIGHT
WINNER OF THE 2012 SPEAR'S BOOK PRIZE FOR BEST MEMOIR
“Di Giovanni combines a defiant high romanticism with a formidable writing technique to striking effect.”
— Jane Shilling, The Telegraph, Best Books of the Year 2011, 22 November 2011
“Di Giovanni writes with sadness, love and generosity ... turned the harsh facts of a life full of extremity and chaos into a story of defiant elegance...
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— The Telegraph, 30 June 2011
[ Full review ]
“Di Giovanni is a graceful writer, blessed with the kind of lucid prose that might trick readers into imagining that penning a compelling memoir would be easy. Her skilfull blending of the lovely (“My first street in Paris smelled of yeast: of baking bread, of cakes”) with the gritty (her husband’s alcoholism, the disintegration of their marriage) gives her book a very authentic kind of texture ...”
— The Christian Science Monitor, 30 September 2011
[ Full review ]
“Di Giovanni has constructed this bitter and illuminating story with admirable artistry...”
— The Times, 16 July 2011
[ Full review - subscription only ]
“Emotional battles and how to survive them are the principal themes in Ms di Giovanni’s beautifully written memoir ... Ghosts by Daylight is no misery memoir, but a powerful lesson. Two people can love each other deeply, have a child, but still, in the end, not make it together.”
— The Economist, 30 July 2011
[ Full review ]
“A blisteringly raw emotional memoir of what it’s like to switch from being an international war correspondent to civilian family life in Paris. The Times’ senior foreign correspondent Di Giovanni weaves in memories of terrifying times in Iraq and the former Yugoslavia as she navigates a new marriage and baby – and is horrified to find that so-called ‘ordinary’ life can be much tougher than any war.”
— Voyager, August 2011
“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.”
— Ynetha, 26 September 2011
“Ghosts by Daylight is a story infused with love: di Giovanni’s love of her job as a war correspondent, love of the one man who could frustrate, but also delight her, and unequivocal love of her son. The book also shows that seemingly invincible and unflappable war correspondents are human, just like the rest of us.”
— New York Journal of Books, 26 September 2011
[ Full review ]
“In beautifully deliberative passages, Di Giovanni depicts the elaborate concoction of her marriage, the renovation of a choice apartment, and the accoutrements of a privileged Parisian life ... Her rather scrambled, touching work is about trying to habituate herself within a mad, chaotic world where even love cannot be fixed in place—inviting enormous sorrow along with the joy.”
— Publishers Weekly
“An intimately honest, compassionate, and humble consideration of marriage, motherhood, and a love that fights to survive in the wake of its romantic beginnings, di Giovanni’s memoir is interlaced with a look at the darkest days of the Bosnian War and the self-realization that comes from facing buried memories.”
— Vogue, 27 July 2011