diff --git a/compiledb/parser.py b/compiledb/parser.py
index 9f4c550..bcedc90 100755
--- a/compiledb/parser.py
+++ b/compiledb/parser.py
@@ -256,6 +256,6 @@ def check_last_cmd(self):
 
 
 def unescape(s):
-    return s.encode().decode('unicode_escape')
+    return repr(s).encode().decode('unicode_escape')
 
 # ex: ts=2 sw=4 et filetype=python