My Port of Beirut

My Port of Beirut

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$25.95

SKU: 9780745348124 Category:
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Description

In August 2020, Lebanon was in the midst of a global pandemic and a devastating economic crisis. People protested in the streets, calling for the removal of a political elite accused of greed, negligence, and incompetence. The Lebanese people felt as though their country was staring into the abyss. But the worst was yet to come. 

On the evening of August 4, 2020, Hangar 12 of the Port of Beirut exploded and then exploded again. A shockwave moving faster than the speed of sound tore through Beirut, leaving nearly 200 people dead, 6,000 injured and 300,000 homeless. The blast had been caused by the storing of thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate alongside a stash of fireworks – a deadly arrangement about which the government had known, but done nothing.

For six months straight, French-Lebanese author and artist Lamia Ziadé wrote, illustrated, and recorded every new piece of information, every photograph of the wreckage or the wounded that made its way around WhatsApp groups, Instagram and Twitter. In My Port of Beirut, Ziadé weaves together the play-by-play of the tragedy with her own personal stories, as well as the historical and political background that made such a catastrophe possible and, perhaps, inevitable.

Beautifully illustrated, intimately personal and politically trenchant account of Beirut’s catastrophic 2020 port explosion
Lamia Ziadé is a Lebanese author, illustrator and visual artist. Born in Beirut in 1968 and raised during the Lebanese Civil War, she moved to Paris at 18 to study graphic arts. She then worked as a designer for Jean-Paul Gaultier, exhibited her art in numerous galleries internationally, and went on to publish several illustrated books, including Ma très grande mélancolie arabe which won the Prix France-Liban, Ô nuit, ô mes yeux and Bye bye Babylone. || Emma Ramadan is a literary translator based in Providence, RI, where she also co-owns Riffraff bookstore and bar. She has received the PEN Translation Prize, the Albertine Prize, an NEA Translation Fellowship, and a Fulbright for her work. Her translations include Sphinx and In Concrete by Anne Garréta, Pretty Things by Virginie Despentes, Zabor, or the Psalms by Kamel Daoud, and A Country for Dying by Abdellah Taïa.
Prologue: August 4, 2020
1: The Sirens of the Port of Beirut
2: The Heroes
3: “A steamer enters the haze of the port of Beirut”
4: The Enchantment of Objects
5: The Saint George Hospital
6: Lady Cochrane
7: The Third Basin
8: My Sister’s Friends
9: Guilt
10: Sacy and Noun
11: The Criminals
12: Report on the Port, 1956
13: My Father’s Stubbornness
14: A Peaceful and Gentle People
15: My Sister on the Telephone
16: Who?
17: Beirut, Nest of Spies
18: The Port, Like the Country
19: Thawra, Birth of a Nation
20: October 17th
21: A Turn for the Worse

Additional information

Dimensions 1 × 6 × 8 in