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BOOK REVIEWS Paul Blezard reviews The Broken Mirrors/Sinalcol by Elias Khoury translated by Humphrey Davies Maclehose Press, UK, 2015 ISBN: 978-1-84866-982-6, 441pp, hbk, £19.99. ebook £12.99. A wonderful, scintillating web of a tale Forty years ago Lebanese-born Elias Khoury published a debut novel An ‘ilaqat al-da’ira (On Circular Connections) and launched an impressive literary career that has produced thirteen novels, three plays, four volumes of literary criticism and has seen him seen him serve as the editor-in-chief of the cultural supplement of the daily Beirut newspaper An-Nahar. Along the way his work has been translated into thirteen languages, he has been hailed as a leading public intellectual, described by World Literature Today as “arguably the finest living Arab novelist” and won legions of admirers from readers and fellow authors alike for his ability to tackle big-theme political issues through the prism of finely drawn characters and their often questionable behaviour. In his latest work, The Broken Mirrors/Sinacol, superbly translated by the gifted, award-winning Humphrey Davies, all Khoury’s skill and experience, both as a writer and a storyteller is brought to bear as he explores the disruptive and destructive effects of civil war on the residents of Beirut’s divided city. Central to this tale is Karim, a doctor who fled the civil war to take up residence in France where he extols the fragrant joys of Lebanese apples and Turkish coffee to his ever more distant wife, 182 BANIPAL 53 – SUMMER 2015
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BOOK REVIEWS Bernadette, and vows never to return to his Lebanese homeland. However, when his smuggler brother Nasim draws him into a conscience-salving plan to build a hospital with his war profits, Karim returns to assist and is soon faced with all he left behind, as well as questions about his reasons for leaving, for returning and for abandoning his wife and daughters in France. So far so seemingly straightforward, but The Broken Mirrors/Sinalcol is anything but. For as Karim seeks answers to his question ‘why did he leave France?’ we realize that reliability in narration is not his strength. He may have re- turned because of his brother, it may equally have been because of terminal homesickness, to revisit his lost loves or to find the elusive truth behind his Father’s death. It may have been all these. It may also be to track down the ‘Sinalcol’ of the title, a mysterious ‘phantom’ that exemplified the civil war, who moved ‘through the darkness of the night’ to write the word ‘Sinalcol’ in red chalk on the doors of small shops and return the next night either to collect protection money or dynamite the doors of defaulters. Part hero, part thug, part legend, Karim describes him as ‘fantômiseur’, further obscuring the truth. As the narrative weaves about, seemingly randomly, within the 1975 to 1990 timeframe, Khoury take us on a panoramic tour through the city, populating the story with a cast of characters so rich and diverse that each sketch is a small masterpiece. In Meena’s story we learn the awful lot of a Sri Lankan maid and through her conversation with Karim’s ex, Hend, now his brother’s wife, the confusion of where is East and where West, “We’re not East either, madam. Whole world become West, all of us imitating all of us, BANIPAL 53 – SUMMER 2015 183

BOOK REVIEWS

Paul Blezard reviews The Broken Mirrors/Sinalcol by Elias Khoury translated by Humphrey Davies Maclehose Press, UK, 2015 ISBN: 978-1-84866-982-6, 441pp, hbk, £19.99. ebook £12.99.

A wonderful, scintillating web of a tale

Forty years ago Lebanese-born Elias Khoury published a debut novel An ‘ilaqat al-da’ira (On Circular Connections) and launched an impressive literary career that has produced thirteen novels, three plays, four volumes of literary criticism and has seen him seen him serve as the editor-in-chief of the cultural supplement of the daily Beirut newspaper An-Nahar.

Along the way his work has been translated into thirteen languages, he has been hailed as a leading public intellectual, described by World Literature Today as “arguably the finest living Arab novelist” and won legions of admirers from readers and fellow authors alike for his ability to tackle big-theme political issues through the prism of finely drawn characters and their often questionable behaviour.

In his latest work, The Broken Mirrors/Sinacol, superbly translated by the gifted, award-winning Humphrey Davies, all Khoury’s skill and experience, both as a writer and a storyteller is brought to bear as he explores the disruptive and destructive effects of civil war on the residents of Beirut’s divided city.

Central to this tale is Karim, a doctor who fled the civil war to take up residence in France where he extols the fragrant joys of Lebanese apples and Turkish coffee to his ever more distant wife,

182 BANIPAL 53 – SUMMER 2015

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