"As If the Wind Beneath Me..." is a novel about dreams and hope. A novel about lives burdened and weighed down by fear; it inhabits them, and they inhabit it. The earthquake that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria in February 2023 was the moment when souls were stripped even of the false leaf of hope. As the earth trembled, and its burdens emerged from its deepest depths, those souls scattered, searching for a salvation they did not find. There was no escape from fear except into fear itself, no refuge. "As If the Wind Beneath Me..." is an attempt to touch those souls, weary of everything; of the alienation that presses upon them to the point of pain; and of the extinguishing ember of hope in an endless maze. It is a novel about an earthquake whose details geologists have long pondered and continue to do so; a novel about the earthquake that affected souls and convictions, and ignited streams of scorching memories. In moments when people were "intoxicated, yet not intoxicated," memories were the sustenance for Mahmoud al-Gharib and Nada al-Shawwa, and the embers that warmed two wandering hearts suspended in the middle of the bridge between despair and hope. They experienced more than one earthquake and more than one disappointment, yet hope did not die in their souls. They lived through the details of the Syrian earthquake in all its specifics, with all its sufferings, until they became shattered by the wind of disappointment. They lived through the details of the tragedy and its dark corners. He loved her, and she loved him. He feared for her, and she feared for him. He dedicated his life for her freedom, and she rewarded him with sincere hope. "As If the Wind Beneath Me..." is a mirror for weary souls burdened by fear for their homeland, and from it. A mirror for souls where fear and alienation have taken root. When the earth emptied what had accumulated within it for long centuries, these souls were overflowing with despair, and hearts overflowed with a sorrow greater than tears, and deeper than tragedy.