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Late 1900s: Why would a man return to Beirut in the midst of civil war?
The Broken Mirrors: Sinalcol
What you need to know before your trail
Why did he return to Beirut?
Why did Karim leave his wife and children and the life he had built in France to return to a homeland still reeling from civil war?
Was it to answer his brother Nasim’s call to raise a hospital out of the ashes? Was it to kick over the traces of past love affairs? Or to establish the truth behind his father’s death?
Or was it to confront at last the ghost of the man known only as “Sinalcol”, a legendary phantom of the civil war, and a broken mirror of himself?
In Beirut, Karim will learn the fate of old comrades, and face a brother who shares a past as divided as the city itself.
And he will find that peace is only ever fleeting in a war without end.
Travel Guide
Travel back to 1990s Beirut
Sinalcol was an iconic figure in the civil war and as known and respected for bravery. This is the way we discover Beirut in this novel.
This novel looks at and examines the pain and violence of the Lebanese Civil War as much as it does its politics.
The war started in 1975 and ended in 1990 but the consequences lasted much longer. This book looks at one man who is now living in France but decides to return to his homeland. It draws him back and he has been upset and troubled about the civil war going on when he is living elsewhere. The war frightens him but he is keen to see how his country is now.
Karim will also be returning to the brother who stayed behind. Family dynamics have torn this family apart and now returning is going to be very tough too. Nasim has done well for himself. How will the two brothers from the same country but from different lives be when together? Two experiences of one country?
There are heavy and painful scenes about the various fighting factions, ‘the reasoning’ behind the civil war and the effects on the people, whether they still live there or have since moved away.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Broken Mirrors: Sinalcol
Destination: Beirut Author/guide: Elias Khoury Departure Time: Late 1990s
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