Beirut Noir [Paperback]

Humaydan writes in her introduction to this haunting anthology that 'all of the stories are somehow framed by the Lebanese civil war, which lasted from approximately 1974 until 1990....' The crimes in this Akashic noir volume are often submerged in the greater tragedy of a beautiful city constantly torn within and without by violence.
--Publishers Weekly

The stories' individual approaches to noir are as diverse as the Beirut landscape, its residents and exiles.
--Middle East Monitor

InBeirut Noir, Iman Humaydan has selected a beautiful and often heartbreaking jigsaw portrait of its eponymous city....These are writers, multiple generations of Beiruti, who live and breathe the neighborhoods of their capital, and each seems to care about even the worst of it. And there is occasional humor to be found in the darkest of its spaces. Beirut, as Humaydan explains in her introduction, is a 'city that dances on its wounds.' This is a book that transcends its place in a series and stands on its own as something terrific.
--World Literature Today

The Lebanese authors featured in the collection draw from a much broader palette of Beirut life, and, true to the genre, they tap into their city's dark past and uncertain present. Some stories are absurd and humorous, but almost all are haunted in some way by a nagging memory, a war, a death.
--The National

Translated by Michelle Hartman.

Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 withBrooklyn Noir. Each story is set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book.

Featuring brand-new stories by: Rawi Hage, Muhammad Abi Samra, Leila Eid, Hala Kawtharani, Marie Tawk, Bana Baydoun, Hyam Yared, Najwa Barakat, Alawiyeh Sobh, Mazen Zahreddine, Abbas Beydoun, Bachir Hilal, Zena El Khalil, Mazen Maarouf, and Tarek Abi Samra.

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