Joumana Haddad’s “The Book of Queens”: a Review
Laila Halaby on the new novel from Lebanon's multilingual feminist poet and powerhouse.
Beirut
Ghosts of Beirut: a Review of “displaced”
Karén Jallatyan reviews the book of Beirut's Armenian community with photography by Ara Oshagan and an essay by Krikor Beledian.
Music in the Middle East: Bring Back Peace
Our music columnist Melissa Chemam, disturbed by the war in Ukraine, makes the link between Odesa and Beirut via DJ Sama' Abdulhadi.
Three Poems of Love and Desire by Nouri Al-Jarrah
Three poems of love and desire, composed in Beirut during the darkest days of the civil war, and war within war, by exiled Syrian poet Nouri al-Jarrah.
Fiction from “Free Fall”: I fled the city as a murderer whose crime had just been uncovered
TMR presents an exclusive excerpt from Abeer Esber's fourth novel, translated here by Nouha Homad, about a Damascene woman on the run, hiding out in Dubai.
Sudden Journeys: From Munich with Love and Realpolitik
A family tragedy (we all have them), powerful forms of devotion and love, and a common political approach to “defeated peoples” in the world—all revisited over a weekend in Munich.
Lebanon at the Point of Drowning in Its Own…
Young Lebanese comic writer-illustrator duo Raja Abu Kasm and Rahil Mohsin convey what they think of corruption and their disintegrating country.
How to Hide in Lebanon as a Western Foreigner
Translators Nadiyah Abdullatif and Anam Zafar bring us Lena Merhej's classic graphic novel on Merhej’s mother’s journey from West to East, and how as a German, she adapted to life in Lebanon.
Sudden Journeys: The Villa Salameh Bequest
Jenine Abboushi inaugurates a new monthly column with a story about a prominent family that lost everything in Palestine.
Electronic Music in Riyadh?
Music journalist Melissa Chemam turns in the first column as part of a new monthly series in which she'll explore icons of Arab music and how they influence music production around the world.
Etel Adnan’s Sun and Sea: In Remembrance
Art critic Arie Amaya-Akkermans summons the gods of art and poetry as he reviews the life work of the late polymath Etel Adnan, 1925-2021.
Diary of the Collapse—Charif Majdalani on Lebanon’s Trials by Fire
A.J. Naddaff reviews the latest work of creative nonfiction by Lebanon's Charif Majdalani, as his nation teeters on the edge of the abyss.
The Anguish of Being Lebanese: Interview with Author Racha Mounaged
A.J. Naddaff Between the Parliament and the Royal Pathway in the center of Brussels, not too far from the touristic Grand Place, there is a park with two parallel kiosks serving refreshments: one in which stoners lollygag and smoke joints against a backdrop of Zen music, and another where…
Racha Mounaged’s Debut Novel Captures Trauma of Lebanese Civil War
From time to time, TMR reviews recent titles published in other languages, to give readers insight before they become available in English. A.J. Naddaff One of the most common features of tragedy is that the events that will unfold on stage are summarized by either the chorus or…
Displaced: From Beirut to Los Angeles to Beirut
Ara Oshagan I am walking along the narrow and labyrinthine Armenian neighborhoods of Bourj Hammoud in Beirut—spaces with names like Nor (new) Marash, Nor Sis, Nor Yozgat. These are the namesakes of towns that hearken back to a distant past, to places and lands from which these communities, my communities…