The first time i met Abbas El Zein was during the Sydney Writer Festival in the late nineties. At that time, his wife to be Ann Mossop was the director of the festival and the laureate of Goncourt 1995, Andrei Makine was one of the international guest. I remember Abbas interviewing Makine at a litterary evening organised by the Alliance Francaise of Sydney
I met him again several years later still at the Sydney writer Festival. This time, he interviewed Rawi Hage whose book "De Niro's war" was a surprise best seller on the darkest period of Lebanon, the Civil War.
"Leave to remain" is Abbas El Zein second book. One thing in common that i share with the author is our country of birth - Lebanon. I have witnessed the bloodshed of those terrible years and i have always thought how our dangerous lives could one day become a tormenting subject.
It is a beautifully written book. The narrator asks in parallel the ultimate questions about normal daily life and memory of difficult times in a country handicaped by decades of violence . A modern muslim intellectual who has a strong sense of belonging and who reflects about his origins.He doesn't hesitate to form a view with question marks about the future of his own children. A sensible approach of a heavy subject that is the War causing the killing of civilians which results in a complete inexistence of rational life.
As a reader who has spent his first fifteen years in Lebanon, i am no stranger on the content of certain elements in the book. Trying to understand Lebanese politics is a paradox and a complete waste of time. There is really no hope in that part of the World.
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