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Published by L’Humanité, on October 1st, 2015
The Lebanese author Jabbour Douaihy, professor of French literature at the University of Tripoli, immerses his reader in this city, especially in its American neighborhood, among the poorest, which he describes accurately. He explores everyday life, from the souk’s stalls, to the cries of the vegetable vendors, these “peasants who smell of damp earth in winter,” as well as the old sheikh, the soap and fish merchants, the baker who makes cheese galettes that one can eat standing up, “against the wall, facing the colorful list of the names of the Prophet’s …

The Award for Arabic literature, worth €10,000, was created by the Arab world institute (Institut du monde arabe, Paris), and the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation (Paris).
The award is presided by Pierre Leroy, Co-manager of Lagardère SCA, and is composed of several personalities from the worlds of media, arts, culture, as well as specialists of the Arab world. A vast majority of the jury elected Mohammed Hasan Alwan’s novel, which was also previously shortlisted for the International Prize of Arabic Fiction, IPAF (or Arab Man Booker).
The prize will be awarded on October 14th 2015 …

This piece is by Alexis Brocas, for the Magazine littéraire, published in September 2015.
Translated excerpts below.
Since Tchen’sattacks  in The Human Condition, terrorism seems a constant theme in contemporary literature — a mirror that we walk along a path bordered by the collective history and the author’s personal history. Three novels came out this autumn, written in various languages, but dealing with this issue using converging narratives.
In The French, Julien Suaudeau recounts the trajectory of a young, clueless, anonymous, young man from Evreux to to the caliphate of Daech — and from petty crime to slaughter. For …

A review by Catherine Simon, for Transfuge, September 15ht, 2015
As its name suggests, the said “American” neighborhood is nested on a hill, overlooking the river and city, has kept nothing from its exotic and opulent past, except the old memory of an Anglican school. The school was eventually closed, squatted by politico-military people, in this case Syrian in this case, while the neighborhood itself was “invaded by the poor neighboring mountains, where growing apricots, or any kind of fruit tree, was no longer enough to feed their families. ” Welcome to Lebanon, homeland of the novelist Jabbour Douaihy.

This review is by Jean-Claude Perrier, for Livres Hebdo, and published on August 21, 2015. Photo credit: The National AE.
Below is an approximate translation.
A subtle novel by Lebanese author Jabbour Douaihy, the main character of which is a city.
Himself a son of Tripoli, Lebanon, where he teaches French literature, a literary critic at L’Orient littéraire, and a translator, Jabbour Douaihy is one of Lebanon’s authors writing in Arabic published in France. Four of his novels have been published here since Autumn Equinox (AMA-Presses of Mirail, 2000). His latest book, the most accomplished, subtle, and captivating, should reveal him.