<div><div>A vision of violent political strife and urgent nationalism, written in the opening phases of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), the novel is told from the perspectives of three characters: a Joint Forces fighter; a distressed civil servant; and an amorphous figure, part fighter, part intellectual. Elias Khoury's language is poetic and piercing as he tells the story of Beirut, civil war, and fractured identity.</div></div>