Publisher's Synopsis
'Her writing soars above the commonplace' World Literature Today'No line or sentence exists without some thought, feeling or image in it.' The Guardian'Impressive and eloquent' Sunday Telegraph'Clear-sighted and convincing' The BulletinAsmahan writes letters, desperately, eloquently, compellingly, to make sense of her life and to bring magic to it. But she also writes to throw light on the war which is tearing apart her country and to recapture her memories of old Beirut - its architecture, its smells, its people, its glory - before they fade.In these evocative, sensual, funny and poignant letters she conjures up with disarming honesty a woman's life and loves in a war-torn city, and her sense of being a hostage in her own country. Beirut with its fighters, fundamentalists, hostages, Palestinians, Syrians, Israelis, Iranians, emerges as a demons playground; a mass of passionate convictions and contradictions reflected in Asmahan herself, and in the extraordinary women who surround her - the proud but resigned grandmother with whom she identifies, the singer Ruhiyya, young Juhayna who wants a better life, old Zemzem who has to choose between her Moulinex and a pet quail.As she write;Lovingly, she records the astonishing details of her existence, the deprivations, the dangerous love affairs, the black humour, the petty jealousies of a divided city, and her ambivalence about the new order in which feudalism is giving way to arms dealing and orchards to opium.Finally, Jawad, with whom she has fallen hopelessly in love, tempts her to leave, and the last letter finds Asmahan at the airport...
