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An Unnecessary Woman
Rabih Alameddine
Novel, 2014
An elderly Beirut translator lives alone through decades of war, conveying the city's apartments, literary life and endurance.
Books set in Lebanon
Six books by writers from Lebanon, set there, that give a real sense of the place, starting with An Unnecessary Woman and The Story of Zahra.
About the literature of Lebanon
Much of Lebanon's best-known modern fiction was shaped by the civil war that divided Beirut from 1975 to 1990. Lebanese writers work in Arabic, French and English, and Beirut has long been a centre of Arabic publishing. Some write from abroad, yet the city's streets, apartments and neighbourhoods keep returning in their pages.
Hanan al-Shaykh's The Story of Zahra portrays a young woman unravelling amid sniper fire and family pressure, while her Beirut Blues is told in letters about the destruction of the city she once knew. Etel Adnan's Sitt Marie Rose, written in French, is based on a true case of a Christian woman killed by her own community. Rabih Alameddine's An Unnecessary Woman presents an elderly translator living alone in her Beirut apartment through decades of war.
By writers from Lebanon
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The Story of Zahra
Hanan al-Shaykh
Novel, 1980. Translated from Arabic
A young woman's unraveling in Beirut during the civil war, shaped by sniper-ridden streets, family pressure and the city's sectarian violence.
Sitt Marie Rose
Etel Adnan
Novel, 1977. Translated from French by Georgina Kleege
Based on a true case, it follows a Christian woman killed by her own community in 1970s Beirut, showing the civil war's fault lines.
The Stone of Laughter
Hoda Barakat
Novel, 1990. Translated from Arabic by Sophie Bennett
A solitary man retreats inward in wartime Beirut, evoking the city's divided neighbourhoods and the civil war's psychological toll.
Beirut Blues
Hanan al-Shaykh
Novel, 1992. Translated from Arabic by Catherine Cobham
Letters from a woman enduring the civil war's destruction of Beirut, and of the cosmopolitan city she once knew.
Beirut, I Love You
Zena el Khalil
Memoir, 2009
A memoir of post-civil-war Beirut nightlife, the 2006 war and the resilience of a generation.
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