Transit Beirut

Transit Beirut - Libanon
New writings and images
Edited by Malu Halasa and Roseanne Saad Khalaf

The first image that hits you in Transit Beirut is the cover. Surely that building collapsing amidst crumbling masonry is a vignette from Lebanon's ruinous 16-year-long civil war. But in the foreground you spy a man wielding a bullhorn, seated in what looks like a director's chair. Well then, a movie set, perhaps? In fact, our would-be Spielberg is merely a contractor overseeing the demolition of an old building, to make way for Beirut's much-touted multi-billion dollar reconstruction.  Yet neither initial deduction is entirely wrong. Reminders of conflict run like unresolved leitmotifs throughout Transit Beirut's 21 essays, poems and short stories. Likewise the film-world allusion is curiously apt, too. It suggests the Janus-like nature of Beirut: An unquenchable ability to imagine new futures, and a tendency towards escapism, so as to stem the tide of bitter memory.

Meer over Beirut vindt u hier: stedengidsen boeken reisverhalen Beirut

 Reisverhaal Libanon; verhalen, reportage, fotoboek, politieke geschiedenis, kunst, travel Lebanon, travel literature