Beirut Fragments

'An impassioned cry against indifference' - New York Times

Beirut was a city like any other. What happened here could, I think, happen anywhere.

Jean Said Makdisi arrived in Beirut as an outsider: a Palestinian refugee who had escaped Jerusalem in 1948 and had grown up across Egypt and America. But in 1975, as Lebanon's capital became the locus of a ferocious civil war, Jean decided to stay.

As sectarian violence mounted and the city collapsed around her, she documented it all: the cars that exploded in the street; the high-rise buildings that turned to dust; the museums that became military checkpoints; the bifurcation of the city; and the brutality of the Israeli siege in 1982.

Taking in the fourteen years of civil war, Makdisi lays bare the violent face of conflict, meticulously documenting its impact on every aspect of civilian life - from the fearsome whistle of shellfire, to the mundanity of queuing for food, to the constant, wandering search for lost loved ones.

Intimate and profound, Beirut Fragments is a heartbreaking memoir of a city under siege and an impassioned defence of collective humanity. With vivid insight and urgency, Makdisi records civilian life brought to its limits and reconstructs the image of a place - and its people - that emerged from the ashes.

Coruscatingly vivid, forensically precise, and emotionally profound -- Laleh Khalili, author of EXTRACTIVE CAPITALISM and HEROES AND MARTYRS OF PALESTINE

Evokes Beirut, eviscerated by war, with profound insight and compassion -- Matthew Teller, author of NINE QUARTERS OF JERUSALEM

Unearths the mundanity of violence with singular unsparing prose -- Lola Olufemi, author of FEMINISM, INTERRUPTED

Mesmerising, heartbreaking and urgent... needed now more than ever. Makdisi's love for Beirut and its people is palpable. -- Priscilla Morris, author of BLACK BUTTERFLIES

A profound, heartbreaking book ― Los Angeles Times

A beautifully crafted memoir... the first detailed account by a civilian of daily life in the cockpit of the Middle East war ― Publishers Weekly

Beirut Fragments, like a eulogy, staggers sharply down Beirut's bombed-out streets, pausing for moments of doleful lyricism, numbness, and rage... an angry and sometimes hopeful homage to the Beirutis who stayed despite the exceptional carnage ― The Village Voice

A rare insider's view of a tragic and protracted conflict ― Kirkus Reviews

'Attains the vividness of a nightmare' - New Yorker