Difficile de ne pas voir dans cette demeure incertaine une métaphore du Liban : un pays victime d’une guerre civile, convoité sinon occupé par ses voisins, où “les gens du dessous” prennent de l’importance, au point de bouleverser les équilibres anciens…

Un roman tragi-comique dont l’action se déroule dans un pays qui panse ses plaies (le Liban des années 1990), au sein d’une demeure familiale décatie (stuc délabré, plancher qui grince), et qui dépeint une galerie de personnages attachants et contrastés

Jabbour Douaihy’s novel ‘Ayn Warda’ appeared in January 2009 in French under the title ‘Rose Fountain Motel’, translated by Emmanuel Varlet, and published by Sindbad, Actes Sud.

On a visit to Paris, Jabbour Douaihy will give a seminar on his latest novel June Rain. The seminar, held at 46 Rue d’Ulm, 75005 Paris, on Jaunary 16th, at 18h, will focus on the relationship between history and fiction.

Interview by Zahra Hankir, NOW Lebanon

NOW Lebanon: Your novel, June Rain, has received much praise. The work tackles one of the trickier aspects of the development of civil conflict in Lebanon: the 1957 rivalry in Zghorta between the Douaihy family and the Franjiehs and Mouawads which led to the Meziara church killing. Why did you choose to address these topics, specifically?
Jabbour Douaihy: As a matter of fact it was [the late journalist] Samir Kassir who gave me the idea of writing a literary novel about the background of the massacre …

On March 10th 2008, at the Rotana Beach Resort in Abu Dhabi, UAE, was held the ceremony of the IPAF prize.
The prize was given to Baha’a Taher, for his novel ‘Sunset oasis’.
From left to right, Elias Farkouh, Jabbour Douaihy and Khaled Khalifa, finalists to the IPAF prize, at breakfast!

We are very proud to inform you that three of our authors are finalists to the most prestigious Arab literary prize ever:

“In praise of hatred”, by Khaled Khalifa, Syria,
“June rain”, by Jabbour Douaihy, Lebanon
“The land of Purgatory”, by Elias Farkouh, Jordan