Jabbour Douaihy’s novels remain, for the non Lebanese readers, works of pure fiction; minute jewelry made by the imagination of a man of talent ranging between modesty and compassion, the most refined sarcasm and bitterness the most painful and understandable. Douaihy tells the story of his Lebanon, and does not submit her to judgments, nor to philosophy or psychoanalysis. The reader rooms around, or rather, he roams jubilant in Douaihy’s imaginary multi-facetted world, with all its contradictions and conflicts, which, as a mosaic, does not reveal its beauty unless it is viewed from a distance. This is the meaning of the virtual camera Douaihy’s look…

The novel Khalifa took him 13 years of work. “I felt fear and terror… This probed me to turn that pain into a novel …” Khalifa is, however, a writer with no pretensions. “I write just for the pleasure of writing and cannot do anything else.”

The AUC Gerhart theater produced Saadallah Wannous’ play, ‘Rituals of a metamorphosis’ in the fall of 2011 that was a great success. Below, a review by Farah Montasser, Al Ahram Online, October 28th, 2011.

Samar Yazbek’s book just came out in English, at Haus publishing. The book’s translation was supported by the Sharjah Book Fair.
Below are excerpts of the review by Francis Beckett for The Guardian, June 22, 2012.