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Archipelago Books

Broken Mirrors

Broken Mirrors

by Elias Khoury, translated from the Arabic by Humphrey Davies

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Format

Karim Chammas returns to Lebanon, his family, and his past after ten years of establishing a new life in France. Back in Beirut, Karim reacquaints himself with his brother Nasim, now married to his former love Hend, and old friends from the leftist political circles within which he once roamed under the nom de guerre Sinalcol. By the end of his six-month stay, he has been reintroduced to the chaos of cultural, religious and political battles that continue to rage in Lebanon. Overwhelmed by the experiences of his return, Karim is forced to contemplate his identity and his place in Lebanon's history. The story of Karim and his family is born of other stories that intertwine to form an imposing fresco of Lebanese society over the past fifty years. Broken Mirrors examines the roots of an endemic civil war and a country's unsettled past.

Additional Book Information

Series: Archipelago Books
ISBN: 9780914671299
Pages: 500
Publication Date:

Praise

[Khoury] is a writer of panoramic scope and ambition, and Broken Mirrors is rich with sly ironies, incisive political observations, and a cosmopolitan array of ideas and literary allusions...its narrative jumps about, swirls with overlapping stories and constantly amends itself, reflecting in form the dislocation of the civil war.
—Azadeh Moaveni, Financial Times

Khoury’s capacious and entrancing novel, masterfully translated by the award-winning Humphrey Davies, is an extraordinary achievement.
—Malcolm Forbes, The National

Within a finely rendered sociopolitical framework, Lebanese novelist Khoury (Gate of the Sun) dives down deeply to portray enduring personal pain.
—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal Reviews

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