First published 1998
In the fractured world of 1980s Beirut, a circle of friends and lovers confronts the twin devastations of the Lebanese civil war and the AIDS epidemic. Personal and national traumas collide as characters struggle to make sense of a reality that defies linear narrative. Death stalks every corner—from hospital rooms to war-torn streets—while survivors piece together memories like desperate, jagged puzzles. Each character wrestles with loss: of lovers, of country, of coherent identity. Their stories emerge in sharp fragments: conversations, hallucinations, news reports, and dark humor that cuts like shrapnel. At its heart, this is a raw exploration of how humans endure when everything familiar has been shattered.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, war, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: non-linear-narrative, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Beirut, Lebanon
Period: Civil War, 1975-1990
256 pages · Paperback · Grove Press
Content warnings: death, war