Nader Said Soubra

Review
Lebanon: A Country for No One & Everyone is a stark, intimate portrait of a nation forever balancing beauty and heartbreak. Nader Soubra writes with the clarity of someone who has lived every contradiction he describes—humor beside despair, tenderness beside ruin. What lingers is not just the country’s turmoil, but the quiet resilience of those who stay, leave, or hover between worlds. It’s a slim book with a deep echo, honest in a way that feels both painful and necessary.

The deep love that the author has for his country literally bursts forth from this book. It starts with a whole suite of positives from climate, geography, people and cuisine. Then the author moves onto factors and events that have cursed the nation. He discusses how the influx of Palestinian refugees after the 1948 "nahkba" upset the already delicate balance of power between different interests, and which would ultimately lead to the rise of Hezbollah and its grip on the country. He bemoans show more the self-interest of so-called leaders who, over the last twenty years, have robbed their people of hope, dignity and a future. He puts forward a recipe for hope but one gets a nagging feeling that worse is to come first. This is not a history, but a personal journey. show less

There is always hope in the world. Any story, any religion, and fable, it always has an element of hope. And the message that comes across in this book is exactly that — hope.

I very clearly remember in 7th grade doing a class project on any country in the world and I either got assigned, or picked, Lebanon. It’s beautiful flag, the food, the people, and the pictures from pre internet days.

This book perfectly encapsulates that soul of Lebanon. One I happy to return to, and will show more continuously cheer on as they hopefully claim back a place on the global stage. show less

”A Story About Acceptance” is Naders debut. In 2026 his non-fiction book about Lebanon was published: ”A Country for No One and Everyone”.

The history of Lebanon is described starting with the Phoenicians. His historical overview seems relatively complete including the Sykes-Picot Agreement, San Remo Conference, National Pact, Cairo Agreement and Civil War. This helps to better understand the current news reports about Lebanon.

Nader Soubra shows us both the dark and the beautiful show more side of his country. The unconditional love for his homeland is contained in sentences such as:

’A strip of land caught between mountains and sea, kissed by sunlight, guarded by cedar forests, destined to be desired.’

I loved the photos between the chapters. He doesn’t only write about politics, but he introduces us to singers, writers etc. This book shows how Lebanese people think and how they survive all the violence. Resilience is an important word, a thread woven throughout the entire story.

Lebanon is mainly divided into four regions: Beirut, the North, the South, and the Bekaa. Lebanese people belong to 18 officially recognized religious groups. To the world it looks like a model for coexistence, but beneath the surface lies the tension: politicians use religion to divide.

The book is dedicated to the victims of the Beirut Port Explosion, 4 August 2020, and to the innocent civilians who lost their lives during the ongoing war from 8 October 2023 until today. For Nader Soubra, that explosion is a prime example of everything that goes wrong in Lebanon.

It proves that the Lebanese factions in power protect corruption. No one went to jail for storing tons of ammonium nitrate in the middle of a city. Some statements are printed in bold, such as ‘This government does not care if you live or die.’

In the final chapter he proposes practical foundations for breaking the cycle: independent judiciary, digitization of state services, unified national healthcare... Nader Soubra gives a blueprint for the Third Republic, a country for everyone.

This non-fiction work provides a fairly complete overview and a detailed picture of Lebanon: not only the good things, but also what is going wrong. I got the impression that the political elite eliminates its opponents: is the author in danger now that he has exposed sore points of his homeland? show less