Beirut Fragments

A "New York Times" Notable Book: A celebrated memoir of life in war-torn Beirut, spanning the 1982 Israeli Invasion and fifteen years of civil war. As relevant now as it was when first published in 1990, "Beirut Fragments" records what it is like to live amid shellings, bombings, and gunfights between militias in the streets. While others fled, Makdisi chose to stay, to raise her sons, and to participate in the spirited life of the remaining community. This intensely personal memoir deliberately avoids the political dimension, yet through an exploration of her own migrations--from Jerusalem to Cairo, the United States, and finally Beirut--Makdisi illuminates root causes that reach back to the region's colonial past and presents "a profound indictment of the inhuman politics of this conflict" (Michael C. Hudson, Georgetown University).