The Vanishing - The Twilight of Christianity in the Middle East

**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.

About the author

Janine di Giovanni

Summary

**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.

Foreword

A powerful investigation into the plight of the remaining Christians in the Middle East by the multi-award-winning journalist described as 'one of our generation's finest foreign correspondents' (Daily Telegraph)

Additional text

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

Product details

• Authors: Janine Di Giovanni
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.12.2021
• EAN: 9781526625830
• ISBN: 978-1-5266-2583-0
• No. of pages: 272
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Contemporary history (1945 to 1989); Military history: post WW2 conflicts, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Middle Eastern, Middle East, Religion & politics