An interview conducted by William Irigoyen, for La Cite, published in November 2015.
A few excerpts below in the French original, and in English.
Photo credit: Samih Zaatari, La Cite.
Thus summed up in its broad lines, the story would present only little interest, if it did not give a new opportunity to the author to dissect this society he knows so well, and the flaws of which he loves depicting: corruption (“At the time of the elections, the rich were buying people’s votes; people wondered how they could have amassed such fortunes”); money that allows everything.
Book after …

A review by Eglal Errera, for Le Monde des livres, published Firday 16th of October, 2015.
Photo credit: La Croix.

A comforting feeling of time and space. Where does this feeling come from in Lebanese writer Jabbour Douaihy’s American neighborhood? When one knows that this story takes place in today’s Lebanon, a short distance away from the Syrian border, in the city of Tripoli that is particularly exposed to the horrors of the killings in the neighboring hills, and shaken by incessant communal clashes, that peaceful feeling is almost shocking.

A reviewe by Agnes Rotivel, for La Croix, published October 5th, 2015
(…) Here we are again in this mainly Sunni port city in Northern Lebanon – too often overshadowed by the capital Beirut – for which the author confesses a passion. Yet he is born in Zgherta, a Christian Maronite stronghold, 8 km away. “A tough city that made war to Tripoli in 1975,” he recalls, referring to the start of the Lebanese civil war.

Click on this link to RTS‘ website.

Published by L’Humanité, on October 1st, 2015
The Lebanese author Jabbour Douaihy, professor of French literature at the University of Tripoli, immerses his reader in this city, especially in its American neighborhood, among the poorest, which he describes accurately. He explores everyday life, from the souk’s stalls, to the cries of the vegetable vendors, these “peasants who smell of damp earth in winter,” as well as the old sheikh, the soap and fish merchants, the baker who makes cheese galettes that one can eat standing up, “against the wall, facing the colorful list of the names of the Prophet’s …

The Award for Arabic literature, worth €10,000, was created by the Arab world institute (Institut du monde arabe, Paris), and the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation (Paris).
The award is presided by Pierre Leroy, Co-manager of Lagardère SCA, and is composed of several personalities from the worlds of media, arts, culture, as well as specialists of the Arab world. A vast majority of the jury elected Mohammed Hasan Alwan’s novel, which was also previously shortlisted for the International Prize of Arabic Fiction, IPAF (or Arab Man Booker).
The prize will be awarded on October 14th 2015 …