Beirut, 2020: Diary of the Collapse
by Charif Majdalani
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Description
"Told in elegant, evocative prose, a devastating and necessary testament to the August explosion that thoughtfully examines the crises that preceded it and its aftermath. At the start of the summer of 2020, in a Lebanon ruined by economic crisis and political corruption, in an exhausted Beirut still rising up for true democracy while the world was paralyzed by the coronavirus, Charif Majdalani set about writing a journal. He intended to bear witness to this terrible, confusing time, and show more perhaps endure it by putting it into words. Using small, everyday interactions-with fellow restaurant patrons, repairmen, the father of his wife's patient, a young Syrian refugee-as openings to address larger systemic problems, he explains how events in Lebanon's recent history led to this point. Then, on August 4, the explosion of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate in the port of Beirut devastated the city and the country. Majdalani's chronicle suddenly became a record of the catastrophe, which left more than two hundred dead and thousands injured, and the massive public outcry that followed. In the midst of the senseless chaos and grief, however, he continues to find cause for hope in the kindness and resilience of those determined to stay and rebuild"-- show lessTags
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giovannigf Two thoughtful, beautifully written, diary-like books about the abysmal tragedies that befell Beirut decades apart.
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Islam & the Middle East
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Beirut, 2020: Diary of the Collapse
- Original title
- Beyrouth 2020: Journal d'un effondrement
- Important places
- Beirut, Lebanon
- Original language
- French
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, Biography & Memoir
- DDC/MDS
- 848.912 — Literature & rhetoric French Literature French miscellaneous writings 1900- 1900-1999 1900-1945
- LCC
- PQ3979.3 .M34 .Z46 — Language and Literature French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese literatures French literature Provincial, local, colonial, etc.
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 31
- Popularity
- 906,232
- Rating
- (4.50)
- Languages
- English, French
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 1
