Stories and Scenes from Mount Lebanon

(Hardback)

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Description

Originally published in Arabic less than a year after the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war in 1975, this is the first English translation of Mahmoud Khalil Saab's Stories and Scenes from Mount Lebanon. Saab's meticulously narrated stories and accounts of people and events in the 'small beautiful country', as he liked to describe his native land, convey the character of life in Lebanon as only someone who lived it can do. Saab travelled around the country by car to interview people who had lived events or heard of them from their elders. Reading his work, it is clear that his central purpose was to preserve for posterity the narratives he had witnessed and heard during his lifetime, feeling that if they went unrecorded they may be lost forever and with them the values they relate. Anyone with an interest in the values, customs, and heritage of the people of Lebanon, and particularly the Druze, will want to read this book.

Reviews

'a literary and intellectual feast ... a novel outlook on life in the narrowness of its individuality and the breadth of its humanity.' from the foreword by Dr Jabbour Abdelnour

Author Bio

Mahmoud Khalil Saab was born in 1909 and lived almost all of his life in his hometown of Choueifat, Lebanon. He spent a lifetime in education, teaching and running elementary and secondary schools. The Arabic version of this book was published in 1976, several months after his death.