For these strange end-of-year holidays, we felt we needed some enlightenment and reflexion. Luckily for us, our friend Zeina Fayad, who recently signed her first novel, L’Insouciance retrouvée ( Living carefree again), was kind enough to share with us her 10 favorite books of the Lebanese Literature, books that allow her (and us!) to find some lightness and depth in these times of crisis. 

1) Khalil Gibran, Beloved Prophet: the Love Letters of Kahlil Gibran and Mary Haskell Correspondence of Gibran and Journal of his friend Mary Haskell [passed away in 1964]:  this book offers several little treasures like these advice to young artists on their path to recognition – very much needed these days when facing so many challenges- or these little seamless and appeasing words that make us love life and enjoy it all the more. 

2) To satisfy your curiosity, complete this first reading with the little biographical book of Alexandre Najjar, Khalil Gibran : a Biography. Other than being an artist and a lover, Gibran knew how to portray the specificity of his resilient little country at the cradle of all religions and civilizations. Diving into his life can also mean remembering the magic of the mountains and of the sacred cedar trees, and of course falling back in love with all these people that will never leave you, no matter where you decide to go later in your life.  

3) Mikhail Naïmé, The book of Mirdad : Mikhail Naïmé’s novel is ideal if you want to know everything about the great Lebanese authors of the first wave of immigration in New York. In short:  “Open your third eye!,” because this book is a sanctuary. You will find secret recipes to live a better life and marvel anew at everything around. Naïmé reminds us that the religions that are now dividing us were previously at the origins of a love uniting us to the world of the living, where the streams, the trees, the daisies, the squirrels, etc. are as one… something to meditate! 

4) Venus Khoury Ghata, Anthologie personnelle (Personal Anthology) How to write after the disaster of the Lebanese war ? According to me, the most beautiful words come to us in the form of poems from women. I am talking about surrealist, unbridled poetry, like the one Nadia Tuéni wrote, or even Georges Shéhadé, a man – but unfortunately I cannot cite everyone. These are magical springs, very sweet to the ear… An example : «Les livres que nous feuilletions venaient de la forêt/ Qui nous regardait lire/Du cri de l’écorce qui se prolongeait sous la peau des pages » (The books we leafed through came from the forest/ That was watching us read/ From the scream of the bark prolonged under the skin of pages). You will find in these poems voices emanating from very far, but strong enough to explain to anyone that we can all forgive and continue our life together on this earth, without losing anything of the beauty of the fights we went through. 

5) Amin Maalouf, On Identity Then there is Amin Maalouf, who has rocked me since childhood with his epic novels, and that I encountered again as an adult through powerful essays like this one. What makes a Lebanese? Maalouf’s advice is still valid to recognize our multiple identities and accept the ones of others. He teaches us that it would be useless to try to rebuild our nation on identity principles because we are millions, or should I say billions of times richer than these divisions. At the root of our identity, there are indeed many ingredients that make a Lebanese. Simply put, if we go back far enough, we are all born from the same parsley stem, and we are all part of the same tabboulé!

6) Rawi Hage, De Niro’s Game Who has never met a “De Niro” in his neighbourhood ? Lebanese people have lived through so many trials… Looking back at the past, we can learn a lot from those among us who fought; for example from these warriors who had weird nicknames like “De Niro”… When Rawi is telling us these stories, they are simply spellbinding. This book  is a remedy for those who like to imagine. It is a good way to acknowledge the suffering, and it allows us both to better understand the cruelty of the past and to find a way of letting go. The conclusion being that we absolutely have to find a better and more humane solution for the future. 

7) Hyam Yared, Sous la tonnelle (Under the arbour) At the same moment in Beirut, Hyam Yared is reconfiguring her feminine genealogy. I am tempted to say : Who has never met an old lady in a villa by the front line ? This is the story of a grandmother and her secret correspondence. Here my mind goes to all the elderly whose homes near the docks have been crushed this past summer. They will certainly be the object of a book as charming and poignant as this one.

8) Camille Ammoun, Ougarit To finish this article, let’s discover new talents. Here is the first novel of a Lebanese unlike others, living between dislocation and exile in a permanent merry-go-round. Camille succeeds to bring Beirut closer to Dubaï and Paris in a circle of mixed and diverse communities living in huge mega-cities. He also reconciles these enormous human constructs with the forgotten sea and nature all around, tying everyone in an intriguing adventure. His secret ? I will not disclose it here, so that you can discover it by yourself 🙂 . You can also discover his newest novel Octobre Liban (October Lebanon), just out. 

9) Hala Moughanieh, Tais-toi et creuse! (Shut up and dig!) Theater with Hala Moughanieh, who digs in our collective and bloody memory, with young and outraged eyes. Why does my generation suffer? Hala suggests a few elements of answer to her readers, but the overall impression is orgiastic and funny. This first youthful text has been followed by several “living texts”, ie representations on stages around the world, like La mer est ma nation (The sea is my nation) for instance, but it is the only one I ever laid my hands on so far! 

10) Bernard Boulad, La guerre des autres (The war of others)… Finally, here is an alternative genre! Bernard Boulad made a comic illustrated by Gaël Henry. The first two volumes are already out, but the saga promises much more surprises… Exiled from Egypt once, then a second time from Lebanon with his family… Bernard throws a bitter-sweet look on all his childhood and the adventures that made him a slightly better man. 

Enjoy your readings!

You can find Zeina’s book on the stands of all francophone bookstores by the publisher Dar Saër el Mashrek, or order it online on FB or Instagram at Thebookshoplb.

Text: Zeina Fayad