Beirut Noir

(Paperback)

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Description

Part of Akashic's acclaimed Noir series. Beirut is a city of contradiction and paradox. It is at once urban and rural, a city of violence and forgiveness, memory and forgetfulness.This short story collection is a part of a vibrant, living recovery of Beirut, effected through the literary visions of its authors. The stories here show the vast maze of the city that strictly can't be found in tourist brochures.

Reviews

The ArabLit count in 2014, which attempted to be global, was 7/40, or 17% by female authors. All of this excludes anthologies, which are more likely to be egalitarian. For instance, the excellent 2015 Beirut Noir anthology, ed. Iman Humaydan, featured more than half women's work.
--Your Middle East

No book could possibly describe the different faces of 21st century Beirut better than Beirut Noir. This anthology of short stories by Lebanese writers living in different neighborhoods of Beirut covers the spectrum of the city's paradoxical moods and colors--urban, rural, glorious, broken, traditional and liberal Beirut. Edited by Iman Humaydan Younes and including stories by Rawi Hage, Muhammad Abi Samra, Leila Eid and others, Beirut Noir forsakes nostalgia and exposes the city with crude honesty. This book will not sugar coat Beirut, but will show you the city in all its vulnerability and let you fall in love with it as it truly is.
--The Culture Trip

The fifteen new stories of Beirut Noir were assembled by Lebanese novelist Iman Humaydan and deftly translated by Michelle Hartman. They were written in all of Lebanon's three main languages--Arabic, English, and French--and they approach the noir genre in markedly different ways. But they are united by loss: their characters have been left behind after so many countrymen have fled for the Lebanese countryside, Canada, the Gulf, the United States, South America, and Europe.
--Qantara

Author Bio

Iman Humaydan is a Lebanese writer, creative writing teacher, translator, editor/publisher, and journalist. Her novels "B as in Beirut," "Wild Mulberries," "Other Lives," and "Letters of Istanbul," all written in Arabic, have been translated and published internationally. She is the cofounder of the Lebanese chapter of PEN, and splits her time between Beirut and Paris. She is the editor of "Beirut Noir."