Sous le soleil d'Occident
Ghassan Fawaz
Novel
Seuil 1998
Paris,end of the seventies, two twenty-five years old Lebanese students: a well-of Christian and a poor Muslim, remember the war. |
SUKKAN AL-SOUR
Mohammad Abi Samra
Novel
Dar An-Nahar 2003
A story depicting social characteristics of a Lebanese community in a Lebanese region. |
Tabiq 99 (Floor 99)
Jana Elhassan
Novel
Manshoorat Dafaf 2014
In this post-civil war Lebanese story, a Palestinian man –whose family was dismantled after the Sabra and Chatila massacre– is living in New York where he falls in love with a Lebanese Christian who wants to go to her Mount Lebanon village in search of her roots… |
Tajaeed al-Ahlam
Chakib Khoury
Novel
Presset 2000
Lebanon since 1958, through characters, dialogues and situations. |
Tawahin Bayrut
Tawfiq Yusuf Awwad
Novel
Dar al-Adab publ. 1972
In the years following the Arab-Israeli war of June 1967, Tamina leaves her poor Shi‘a village despite her family’s and community’s resistance, and goes to university in Beirut, where she works, studies, and learns about the dangers of anarchy and revolution, and comes in contact with the poorest Lebanese and with Palestinian refugees… just a few years before the civil war. |
TAWAKKAFU, UREED AN ANZIL
Fawzi Yammine
Novel
Dar An-Nahar 2003
Various ideas and thoughts of the author on a number of subjects to be interpreted differently by the different readers. |
Terra Nova, pour un monde nouveau
Simon Géara
Novel
Self-Published 2009
While the whole world is in crisis, in Byblos, land of the alphabet, young people create a bridge between men: an alphabet of love that will become the language of all people to share solidarity and respect. |
The Boy from the Tower of the Moon
Anwar F. Accawi, Helene Atwan
Novel
Beacon Pr. 1999
A memoir of life in a small Lebanese village right after the Second World War. |
The Broken Mirrors
Elias Khoury
Novel
Quercus Publishing 2015
This novel depicting a portrait of Lebanese society since the 1960s tells the story of two brothers, a medical student and a leftist, both in love with the same girl who marries the leftist after the medical student goes to settle in France… until the latter leaves his wife and children in France, and goes back to Lebanon to find a man known only as Sinalcol. |
The Brothers
Milton Hatoum
Novel
translated into Arabic at Dar Al-Farabi; Bloomsbury publ. 2003
A novel written by a -51 years’ old- Lebanese-Brazilian writer -born in Brazil and who visited Lebanon for the first time in 1990- “set among the Lebanese immigrant community in Manaus during the last years of the rubber boom in Brazil”, telling the story of Omar and Yacub, “identical twins who despise each other intensely”. The family sends Yacub to Lebanon, to keep the brothers from killing each other. 5 years later, Yacub is back, as or more full of hatred. As of Omar, he has become “over-indulged and self-destructive, with a penchant for binge drinking and reckless womanizing”. |
The Bullet Collection
Patricia Sarafian Ward
Novel
Graywolf press 2003
A novel about the scars of war on a Lebanese family living in exile, its impact on helpless children: one of two sisters recounting the story on growing up in wartime Beirut when her younger sister used to collect bullets, grenades, shrapnel and put them on her bedroom shelves. |
The Cyclist
Viken Berberian
Novel
Simon & Schuster pub. 2002
Through this psychological study of a terrorist’s mind -a man whose religious affiliation, national identity, and political beliefs are not mentioned- in post-war Beirut, who from being an innocent man became "a dangerous young man cruising toward Beirut with a bomb on his back", the author portrays, in this novel, what happens to a group of young people who grow up surrounded and traumatized by continuous violence. |
The Eye of the Mirror (Arab Women Writers)
Liyanah Badr Edited by Fadia Faqir, Translated Samira Kawar
Novel
Garnet Pub Ltd 2001
The author tells the about the upbringing of Aisha in Tal el-Zaatar Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon during the siege imposed by the Phalangist militias in 1976. |
The fantastic Strokes of Imagination
Emily Nasrallah
Novel
Elias Modern Publishing House 1995
The despair engendered by the Lebanese war and the effect it had on Lebanese women. |
The house of Mathilde [L'Immeuble de Mathilde] [Binayat Mathilde]
Hassan Daoud
Novel
english ed. translated by Peter Theroux, Granta; french ed. translated by Youssef Seddik, Actes-Sud/Sindbad; arabic ed. Dar al-Tanwir; 1998, 1998, 1983
The House of Mathilde, where all the events are almost a copy and an effect of the events of war happening all over Lebanon. |
The Kingdom of Strangers [Mamlakat al Gouraba]
Elias Khoury
Novel
english ed. Univ. of Arkansas Press; arabic ed. Dar al-adab; 1996, 1993
A novel about Lebanon besieged by civil war; a mosaic portrayal showing the chaos and despair suffered by its people. |
The Last Migration
Jade el Hage
Novel
Panache Publications 2002
The story of Ashraf Saad, a Lebanese journalist living in England -having left Lebanon at the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War-, and who, after divorcing from his Lebanese wife and with his two daughters living in Australia, falls in love with Claire who dies in an accident in Mexico, then has a love affair with Jenny whom he breaks up with to end up with his closest friend, Anna. " . . beneath its entertaining surface it portrays the bewildered restlessness of the Lebanese Diaspora, forced out of their deeply-loved homeland by the civil war of 1975-93. However successful and adaptable they may appear to be in their new countries they are profoundly aware of what has been lost — in Lebanon and in themselves." |
The Night Counter
Alia Younis
Novel
Crown 2009
This novel depicts the life of Arabs in modern America through the story of 85 year’ old Fatimah who makes a list of the things she must do before dying, including teaching Arabic and birth control to her 17-year-old great-granddaughter and finding a wife for her gay grandson. Furthermore, she must also choose which of her children will inherit her family's home in Lebanon. |
The Penguin's Song
Hassan Daoud
Novel
City Lights Publ 2014
This classic novel of the Lebanese civil war focuses on the trap of poverty, relating the story of a handicapped young man who erases the limits between what is normal and what is not. |
The Perv: Stories
Rabih Alameddine
Novel
Edited by Michael Denneny 1999
Collection of seven loosely related stories which explore the world of Lebanese survivors whom the crises of modernity have made homeless, whether they stayed in Lebanon or joined the diaspora abroad; the relationships within the traditional Lebanese family when that tradition is shattered by a decade of civil war. |
The Qadi & the Fortune Teller
Nabil Saleh
Novel
Interlink Books 2008
The stories included in the diary of Sheikh 'Abdallah bin Ahmad bin Abu Bakar al-Jabburi –a Muslim judge during 1843s– found in the rubble of Beirut in the late 1970s tell about the political conspiracies and diplomatic intrigues during this period. |
The Qadi and the Fortune Teller
Nabil Saleh
Novel
Interlinks Publ. 1998
The diary of Sheikh 'Abdallah bin Ahmad bin Abu Bakar al-Jabburi a Muslim judge in Ottoman Beirut during 1843, is found hidden in a wall of a house in the rubble of Beirut in the late 1970s. It "tells of his work as a judge, the cases he has to deal with amid the political conspiracies and diplomatic intrigues of the times and the impact they have on his relations with others." |
The Return to Beirut [La Maison Sans Racines]
Andree Chedid translated by Ros Schwartz
Novel
Serpent's Tail 1989
The story of fascinating independent women of the upper class and their struggle for the simplest things of meaning to them, while bound by the society and traditions they live within. |
The Servant
Fatima Sharafeddine
Novel
Groundwood Books 2013
Sent away from her village by her father to work as a maid for a wealthy family in the city, 17 year’s old Faten falls in love with rich Marwan, and they both must face the Lebanese society’s restrictions concerning the differences in religion, class, and wealth. |
The Side of Innocence [Nahiyyat al-Bara'a]
Rashid al-Daif
Novel
english ed. translated by Paula Haydar, Interlink Pub Group; arabic ed. Dar al-Massa; 2001, 1997
The conditions of ordinary simple people in post-civil war Lebanon, who remain at the mercy of forces other than those of the legitimate authority. |
The Square Moon: Spernatural Tales
Ghada Samman translated from Arabic by Issa J. Boullata
Novel
The University of Arkansas Press 1999
A collection of 10 stories with characters -Lebanese immigrants- haunted by Memories of their native land and continuously attempting to “reconcile changes in the geographical and cultural landscape of their lives”. |
The Square Moon: Supernatural Tales
Ghada Samman translated by Issa J. Boullata
Novel
University of Arkansas Press 1999
Ten short stories "where Arabic tradition melds with both the modern European world and a Gothic strata of the supernatural.." highlighting issues such as murder and relationships with women. Tensions between the sexes and between identities. |
The Story of Zahra [Hikayat Zahrah]
Hanan el-Sheikh english ed. translated by Peter Ford
Novel
Doubleday; arabic ed. Dar al-Adab; 1996, 1990
Novel, illuminating the personal human tragedy of war and madness. |
The Year of the Revolutionary New Bread-making Machine
Hassan Daoud
Novel
Telegram Books 2008
In 1960s Beirut, our young hero works in the family bakery and spends his free time with his friends. He sings all day while the exhausted employees dream of becoming wrestlers… until his father buys the revolutionary new bread-making machine and they must adapt and forget about their dreams. |
Tikaniyyat al-Bou's
Rashid al-Daif
Novel
Riad el-Rayyes Books
Memories of every day life in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War. |
Tistifil Meryl Streep
Rashid al-Daif
Novel
Riad el-Rayyes Books 2001
The intimate story of a newlywed Lebanese couple, their struggle to deal with their own differences as well as with the rapidly evolving attitudes in Lebanon toward virginity, premarital sex, and abortion… depicting a portrait of love, lust, and marriage. |
Toot barri
Iman Humaydan Younes
Novel
Al-Masar li-al-Nashr w-al-Abhath w-al-Tawtheeq 2001
This novel portrays the life of the silk-growing inhabitants of a Druze Lebanese village during a difficult economic period, through the story of young Sarah and the village’s women. |
Tuyoor al-Holiday Inn (Birds of the Holiday Inn)
Rabee Jaber
Novel
Dar al-Tanweer 2011
At the beginning of the civil war in Lebanon, Beirut was split into West and East and the fiercest battles were fought downtown where the city’s most famous hotel stood: the Holiday Inn. |
UBUR AL-RUKAM
Antoine Al-Duwaihi
Novel
Dar An-Nahar 2003
"In this dream, I felt like flying away, as I usually do when the night approaches. But this time, it was early morning. And I was not alone as usual, there were two persons with me. A man and a woman whose faces I cannot remember quite clearly… I think the woman was "Vienna’s Airport Woman" and the man, someone who had died with his brother while I was living in exile…" |
Un soir à Beyrouth (nouvelles)
Sélim Nassib
Novel
Ed. Thierry Magnier 2007
Lebanon that has witnessed wars, attacks, occupation, exile, ever-present in the eyes of ordinary men and women who have to live with the consequences. |
Unreal City
Tony Hanania
Novel
Bloomsbury 1999
The narrator, a rich and educated Lebanese from the mountains, returns to the ruined city, Beirut, haunted by memories of his country's fractured past to search for the mistress who betrayed him in his youth. |
Ville A Vif
Imane Hemaidan Younes
Novel
Verticales 2004
About the Civil War in Lebanon and its consequences on family life through the portrait of four women illustrating four attitudes towards this drama : silence, scream, impetuosity, resignation. |
Visage Retrouvé
Wajdi Mouawad
Novel
Actes Sud 2002
Wahab, a 14 year old boy comes back home one day after school and doesn't recognize his mother's face. Reality starts breaking up before his eyes. While his initiation to the lies in the world begins, he runs away from home, beyond himself and, within a few days, alone and almost going mad, he'll experiment fear and beauty, with an underlying anger. |
Voyages en Cancer
Evelyne Accad
Novel
L'Harmattan 2000
The personal and social acceptance of cancer, and life that goes on. |
What happened to Zekko [Yawmiyat Hirr]
Emily Nasrallah
Novel
english ed. Naufal Group; arabic ed. Dar Al-Kitab Al-Aalami; 1998, 1997
A novel for children about the Lebanese war drawn from truth and fact, because 'we ought to remember and consider, so that the past will be a lesson for future generations'. |
What Makes a Man? Sex Talk in Beirut and Berlin
Rashid al-Daif
Novel
Univ. of Texas Press 2015
A “novelized biography” by Lebanese novelist Rashid al-Daif and and the riposte of German novelist Joachim Helfer demonstrating how attitudes toward sex and masculinity across cultural contexts are intertwined with the work of fiction, thereby highlighting the importance of fantasy in understanding the Other”; Rashid al-Daif talks about his encounter with gay Joachim Helfer, highlighting that the HIV virus is more widely-spread in gay communities, and not missing an opportunity to claim his heterosexuality loud and clear and say that life without women is colorless. This book also includes essays by specialists in Arabic and German literature shedding light on the discourse around sex between the two authors from different cultural contexts. |
Who's Afraid of Meryl Streep?
Rashid al-Daif
Novel
Univ. of Texas Press 2014
The intimate story of a newlywed Lebanese couple, their struggle to deal with their own differences as well as with the rapidly evolving attitudes in Lebanon toward virginity, premarital sex, and abortion… depicting a portrait of love, lust, and marriage. |
Wild Mulberries
Iman Humaydan Younes
Novel
Interlink Publ. Group 2008
This novel portrays the life of the silk-growing inhabitants of a Druze Lebanese village during a difficult economic period, through the story of young Sarah and the village’s women. |
Women of Sand and Myrrh
Hanan el-Sheikh
Novel
Anchor 1992
The author relates the hard life of four women in an unnamed desert state. |
Ya salam
Najwa Barakat
Novel
Dar al-Adab 1999
A portray of the return to life after the end of the civl war, describing its consequences as well as those of gender violence through the story of three friends, an explosives expert, a sniper, and a torturer, who must make a life for themselves in a war-free country. |
Ya salam!
Najwa Barakat
Novel
Actes-Sud 2012
A portray of the return to life after the end of the civl war, describing its consequences as well as those of gender violence through the story of three friends, an explosives expert, a sniper, and a torturer, who must make a life for themselves in a war-free country. |
Yalo
Elias Khoury
Novel
Dar Al-Adab (arabic), Actes Sud (french); The french edition is translated by Rania Samara; 2001, 2004
The Lebanese society through the eyes of a combatant: his life with his family before the Lebanese Civil War, his experience as a combatant, and his post-war life. |
YAWM AL-DEEN
Rasha Al-Amir
Novel
Dar Al-Jadeed 2002
The author reports the ideas and words of a Sheikh on the subject of religious fanatism. |
Yawmiyat Hirr [What happened to Zekko]
Emily Nasrallah
Novel
arabic ed. Dar Al-Kitab Al-Aalami; english ed. Naufal Group; 1997, 1998
A novel for children about the Lebanese war drawn from truth and fact, because 'we ought to remember and consider, so that the past will be a lesson for future generations'. |
YAWMIYYAT MOUHAJER
Mahmoud Shreih
Novel
Dar Nelson 2003
A compilation of thoughts of a Lebanese immigrant written between 1992 and 1997 in Budapest, in Vienna but mostly in France, and were published in Arabic newspapers. |
