Leaving One’s Country in Mai Al-Nakib’s “An Unlasting Home”
Rana Asfour reviews Mai Al-Nakib's debut novel, in which the protagonist always thought she would leave her country.
Lebanon
Why I left Lebanon and Became a Transitional Citizen
More Lebanese live abroad than at home, and the exodus continues. Some have the option to leave, others cannot.
Joumana Haddad: “Victim #232”
A preview of the new Arabic novel from the author of "I Killed Scheherazade" and "Superman is an Arab."
Fragmented Love in Alison Glick’s “The Other End of the Sea”
Nora Lester Murad reviews a "far-fetched" story of a marriage between a Palestinian Muslim and an American Jew.
Fairouz is the Voice of Lebanon, Symbol of Hope in a Weary Land
For April's column, music critic Melissa Chemam looks longingly at the legend of Lebanon's diva.
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.
“Gluttony” from Abbas Beydoun’s “Frankenstein’s Mirrors”
Lebanese poet-novelist Abbas Baydoun reflects in an autobiographical mode on the melancholy of language and existence, while contemplating sweets.
Temptations of the Imagination: how Jana Elhassan and Samar Yazbek transmogrify the world
Rana Asfour provides an intimate look at two new Arab novels in translation, from Lebanese and Syrian authors.
My Lebanese Landlord, Lebanese Bankdits, and German Racism
Racism props up its ugly head from every quarter, but Tariq Mehmood refuses to be deterred.
Three Levantine Tales
Writer, translator and artist Nouha Hamad tells three tales passed down as family legend connecting the 19th and 20th centuries.
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.
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.
Burning Forests, Burning Nations
Columnist Hadani Ditmars recounts meeting strangers at the beach during fire season in British Columbia and finds Syria and Turkey are shared homelands.
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 Vanishing: Are Arab Christians an Endangered Minority?
Hadani Ditmars reviews Janine di Giovanni's ambitious new travelogue on beleaguered Christian communities in Iraq, Gaza, Syria, and Egypt.