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Sabra Zoo

Sabra Zoo

Author(s): Mischa Hiller

Location(s): Beirut

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): 1980s

Location

Content

It is the summer of 1982 and Beirut is under siege. Eighteen-year-old Ivan’s parents have just been evacuated from the city with other members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Ivan stays on, interpreting for international medical volunteers in Sabra refugee camp by day, getting stoned with them by night, and working undercover for the PLO. Hoping to get closer to Eli, a Norwegian physiotherapist, he helps her treat Youssef, a camp orphan disabled by a cluster bomb. An unexpected friendship develops between the three and things begin to look up – But events take a nasty turn when the president-elect is assassinated. The Israeli army enters Beirut and surrounds the camp, with Eli and Youssef trapped inside. What happens next makes international headlines and leaves Ivan scrabbling to salvage something from the chaos.

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Book Reviews

Lead Review

A haunting novel of haunting times, in many ways a rites-of-passage novel set in Beirut in 1982 during the killings

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