First published 2024
Khalil Mougharbel returns to Beirut after decades away, carrying a suitcase full of unwritten stories and a mission to uncover the truth about his family's fractured history. As civil wars and sectarian conflicts have reshaped the city, Khalil discovers a cache of letters and photographs hidden in his grandmother's abandoned apartment. Each document threatens to unravel carefully constructed narratives about his parents' disappearance, the uncle who vanished during the Lebanese Civil War, and the silences that have defined generations of his family. With local journalists and distant relatives watching his every move, Khalil must decide whether some stories are better left untold—or if revealing the truth is the only way to reclaim his own identity. A nuanced exploration of memory, survival, and the stories families tell themselves to endure.
Genres: literary-fiction, mystery, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Beirut, Lebanon
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
96 pages · Hardcover · University of Virginia Press