Elias Khoury is a Lebanese novelist, playwright, and critic whose works delve into the depths of the human experience. His writing is characterized by a sharp focus on themes of identity, history, and culture. Through his innovative literary techniques and keen critical analysis, he offers readers unique insights into the complexities of the modern world. His body of work establishes him as a significant voice in contemporary Arabic literature and intellectual discourse.
In a makeshift hospital in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut, Yunis, an aging Palestinian freedom fighter, lies in a coma. His spiritual son Dr Khaleel --- who has no real medical qualifications - nurses the older man, refusing to admit that his hero may never regain consciousness.
Award-winning author Elias Khoury's latest novel is a searing look at truth and memory, love and trancendence, told through the contradictory confessions of a young Lebanese prisoner During the Lebanese civil war in the 1980s, a young man is arrested and charged with rape. Repeatedly interrogated and tortured, Yalo is forced--like Scheherazade--to tell a different story each day to stay alive. As he battles to understand his past and the forces that have shaped him, he comes to discover his own voice and the true Yalo begins to emerge. This is a searing look at truth and memory, love and transcendence, from one of our most important Arab novelists.
Il 13 aprile 1980, nel centro di Beirut, viene rinvenuto tra le immondizie il cadavere di un uomo sulla cinquantina. Il corpo presenta segni di torture. Il narratore - un laureato in scienze politiche costretto dall'immanenza della guerra civile a riciclarsi in impiegato presso un'agenzia di viaggi - si improvvisa giornalista e decide di scoprire chi ha ucciso Khalíl Ahmad Jàbir, un cittadino qualsiasi, e perché. Ognuno dei sei capitoli centrali dà voce a un personaggio diverso, tra quanti hanno conosciuto o anche solo incontrato la vittima ed è attraverso le loro parole che l'autore cerca di ricostruirne la personalità e le traversie (sono la moglie, la figlia, un vicino, la portiera, un miliziano e un netturbino). Nelle loro storie sono così tante le morti violente, che la morte di Khalíl Jàbir perde quasi di significato e di eccezionalità.