Italian publisher Feltrinelli has acquired the Italian rights to Jabbour Douaihy’s June rain.

Interview by Zahra Hankir, NOW Lebanon

NOW Lebanon: Your novel, June Rain, has received much praise. The work tackles one of the trickier aspects of the development of civil conflict in Lebanon: the 1957 rivalry in Zghorta between the Douaihy family and the Franjiehs and Mouawads which led to the Meziara church killing. Why did you choose to address these topics, specifically?
Jabbour Douaihy: As a matter of fact it was [the late journalist] Samir Kassir who gave me the idea of writing a literary novel about the background of the massacre …

We are very proud to inform you that three of our authors are finalists to the most prestigious Arab literary prize ever:

“In praise of hatred”, by Khaled Khalifa, Syria,
“June rain”, by Jabbour Douaihy, Lebanon
“The land of Purgatory”, by Elias Farkouh, Jordan