Novel set in Lebanon

7th May 2019

The Storyteller by Pierre Jarawan, novel set in Lebanon.

Jarawan’s debut novel grips the reader from the start with an intriguing prologue which leaps forward twenty years to when our narrator, Samir, now grown up, is stabbed and mugged in Beirut. Immediately after this scene, we encounter Samir as an eight-year-old boy, living in an immigrant neighbourhood in Germany, being repeatedly told that his parents’ homeland, Lebanon, is nothing short of a paradise on earth.  Jarawan, commenting on the way his novel begins, said “the opening scene tells readers not to trust what they’re going to read about Lebanon the next two hundred pages.” It’s a fitting start for a novel that keeps you constantly guessing and ultimately turns your beliefs on their head.

The novel proper begins with a very engaging and amusing depiction of life in an Arab community in Germany as young Samir’s father, Brahim el-Hourani, is up on the roof attempting to fix a new antenna that will allow them to access Arabic channels, with the help of friendly Arabic-speaking neighbours.  Brahim constantly fills young Samir’s head with stories about Lebanon and sends him off to sleep at night with wonderful made-up stories that could have come straight out of One Thousand and One Nights. Brahim, idolised by Samir, is a charismatic and much respected figure in the community and the El-Hourani’s are a very happy, close-knit family, who seem set to make a very successful future in their new country.  But then, one day, when showing the family slides of Lebanon, Brahim comes across a slide depicting his young self in a strange uniform. Young Samir is full of questions which aren’t answered – all he knows is that his father is never the same again and shortly afterwards vanishes without saying a word to anyone. The novel then moves forward and back in time between young Samir attempting to cope with the loss of his father and grown up Samir who travels to Lebanon on a quest to discover what has happened to his father.

One of the real strengths of this novel is the character of young Samir and the depiction of the relationships he forms with his father. There is a powerfully moving account of the way the child’s desperate hope gradually changes to bitter despair as he realises that his father is not going to return.  But more than anything else, the novel’s strength lies in its setting. It is obvious that Jarawan is a poet, for this novel is rich in sensual imagery, much of which is used in describing Lebanon.  The writer manages to convey the confusing nature of the place, particularly Beirut, whose beauty is capable of masking such cruelty.

The Storyteller is not without flaws, however.  Most of the time, the narrative is pacy, although there are sections when it reads more like a thinly disguised account of the history and politics of the country. But this is a debut novel with some real strengths, offering the reader a powerful insight into the way that growing up makes us reassess our youthful beliefs, and I think it is fair to say that we should expect further great things from this writer.

Ellen for the TripFiction Team

Do check out Pierre’s #TalkingLocationWith… feature – Beirut, which we featured recently.

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