Dan Mayland is an author and professional geopolitical forecaster, helping nonprofit, private, and government organizations navigate a changing world. His Mark Sava spy series was informed by his experiences in the Caspian region and Middle East. Raised in New Jersey, Mayland now lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and two children, in an old stone farmhouse he and his wife have restored.
Connect
Sign up and keep informed of the latest on Dan Mayland and Blackstone Publishing
Praise for Books
“The scope of war may belong to the historian, but the tragedies belong to the novelist. Mayland not only portrays the collapse of Aleppo with authority, he depicts the human struggles for life and dignity with a deftness that will wreck the reader’s heart. A must-read for more than action, but wisdom and compassion.” —David L. Robbins, New York Times bestselling author of War of the Rats and The Devil’s Waters
“Mayland presents a heroic and heartbreaking novel that concentrates on concepts of homeland, family, loss, and, above all, survival.” —Booklist
“Dan Mayland’s The Doctor of Aleppo turns an unflinching gaze on the reality of modern warfare, fought in neighborhoods rather than a battlefield, where today’s ally is tomorrow’s enemy, and people struggle against all odds to maintain their humanity. A thriller that breaks your heart as it rockets toward its stunning conclusion.” —Gwen Florio, author of Silent Hearts
“Dan Mayland’s Doctor of Aleppo grips you from the start. His keen storytelling lends insight into war and its brutality through this tale of hope and redemption.” —Judy A. Bernstein, author of Disturbed in Their Nests
“Dan Mayland has painted humanity at its best and its worst with unforgettable imagery and complex characters in a relentless plot. The Doctor of Aleppo streaks with urgency through a supremely crafted labyrinth of intrigue. There will be a temptation to describe this as a thriller, and it certainly is, but that unfairly fails to recognize the depth of this novel.” —Daniel Beamish, author of Truth, by Omission
“In The Doctor of Aleppo, Dan Mayland lends a human face and a compelling story to a tragedy too large and complicated for most of us to understand. A harrowing and unforgettable read.” —Dana Haynes, author of St. Nicholas Salvage & Wrecking
“The pace is swift and intense, with knowledge of Aleppo’s geography complementing the significant human interaction.” —Manhattan Book Review
“This is not an easy book to pick up, but it is a harder one to put down. Told in short, often gruesome chapters, Mayland forces us to look at the torture, the death, the inhumanity of the war, all the while giving us characters we care about and ones we don’t like but curiously come to understand. I highly recommend this book, and I thank Mayland and his publisher for finally making me pay attention.” —Midwest Book Review
“This is not an easy book to pick up, but it is a harder one to put down. Told in short, often gruesome chapters, Mayland forces us to look at the torture, the death, the inhumanity of the war, all the while giving us characters we care about and ones we don’t like but curiously come to understand. I highly recommend this book, and I thank Mayland and his publisher for finally making me pay attention.” —Midwest Book Review
While working in the ancient Silk Road city of Aleppo, American Hannah Johnson and her Swedish lover, Oskar, are drawn into the mounting turbulence of the impending Syrian civil war.
After Oskar is wounded at a street protest one evening, he and Hannah cross paths with Dr. Samir Hasan, a renowned surgeon. As the protests swell into all-out war, Dr. Hasan tends not only to Oskar, but also risks his life, his practice, and his family to tend to a nephew the government has branded an insurgent.
Dr. Hasan’s humanitarian activities come to the attention of a vengeful, Javert-like secret police officer whose son’s death on Dr. Hasan’s watch triggers a series of events that will drag Hannah and Oskar deeper into the war and put Hannah and Dr. Hasan in the officer’s crosshairs.
Both intimate and sweeping in scope, The Doctor of Aleppo lends insight into how the most brutal, devastating war of the twenty-first century is mirrored on the personal scale, leaving scars that can never be healed.
