An important op-ed on Syria’s future (h/t Emergency Committee For Rojava). For more background on the fight for democracy in the region, Meredith Tax’s A ROAD UNFORESEEN is a great reference. (fb)

Happy publication day to ONLY SMOKE, Spanish novelist Juan José Millás’s “wonder of a book” (Library Journal *starred review*), translated by Thomas Bunstead and Daniel Hahn, about a boy who follows the breadcrumbs through a volume of Grimms’ Fairy Tales in search of his estranged father. https://www.blpress.org/books/only-smoke/ (fb)