The Foghorn Echoes
A deeply moving novel about a forbidden love between two boys in war-torn Syria and the fallout that ripples through their adult lives.
Syria, 2003. A blooming romance leads to a tragic accident when Hussam’s father catches him acting on his feelings for his best friend, Wassim. In an instant, the course of their lives is changed forever.
Ten years later, Hussam and Wassim are still struggling to find peace and belonging. Sponsored as a refugee by a controlling older man, Hussam is living an openly gay life in Vancouver, where he attempts to quiet his demons with sex, drugs, and alcohol. Wassim is living on the streets of Damascus, having abandoned a wife and child and a charade he could no keep up. Taking shelter in a deserted villa, he unearths the previous owner’s buried secrets while reckoning with his own.
The past continues to reverberate through the present as Hussam and Wassim come face to face with heartache, history, drag queens, border guards, and ghosts both literal and figurative.
Masterfully crafted and richly detailed, The Foghorn Echoes is a gripping novel about how to carve out home in the midst of war, and how to move forward when the war is within yourself.
Awards
- Winner of the Lambda Literary Awards 2023 - Gay Fiction.
- Shortlisted for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes 2023 - The Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.
- Shortlisted for the City of Vancouver Book Award 2023.
In the Press
"In weaving together the stories of two gay men, the award-winning Syrian-Canadian author constructs a vivid portrait of life under Assad"
This, ultimately, is the beauty, originality and strength of Ramadan's tremendous second novel. The Foghorn Echoes dares to give us a love story where the most important, meaningful journeys are the ones that lead each protagonist to accept, forgive, change and love themselves, for themselves.