Abbas El-Zein

Abbas El-Zein’s Followers (6)

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Abbas El-Zein


Website

Genre
Fiction, Memoir


Abbas El-Zein was born and raised in Beirut. He was twelve years old when the civil war broke out in 1975. He lived in Beirut through most of the war and, like many Lebanese of his generation, experienced shelling, car bombs, shootings and displacement. Although he came from a family of Shia religious scholars, he attended a French secular school and studied civil engineering at the American University of Beirut. He migrated to Australia in 1996.

Abbas has written essays and short stories about war, identity and displacement for The New York Times, The Age, Meanjin, HEAT and Australian Book Review. His first novel was Tell the Running Water (Sceptre, 2001) and his second book was a memoir about growing up in Beirut called Leave to Remain (U ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.91 · 86 ratings · 16 reviews · 7 distinct works • Similar authors
Bullet, Paper, Rock: A Memo...
4.33 avg rating — 33 ratings
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The Secret Maker of the World
4.16 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 2014 — 3 editions
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Leave To Remain
3.58 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 2009 — 2 editions
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Tell the Running Water
3.50 avg rating — 8 ratings
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Tell the running water
2.33 avg rating — 6 ratings
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The Secret Maker of the Wor...
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating
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Bullet, Paper, Rock: A Memo...
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More books by Abbas El-Zein…
Quotes by Abbas El-Zein  (?)
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“She asks me what I am cooking today and I say mujaddara - a traditional rice and lentil dish, with fried onions sprinkled on top, that she taught me how to make. I tell her that I never seem to be able to match the crispiness of her onions. She gives me some advice about it - frying them in hotter oil and letting them sit in a strainer for a while. I ask her about Uncle, and she says he's still waking up in the middle of the night, asking about his mother. Once again, I feel grateful that Mum's mind is untarnished. We talk about Covid again for a minute or so. Then she asks me what am I cooking today.”
― Abbas El-Zein, Bullet, Paper, Rock: A Memoir of Words and Wars
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“She asks me what I am cooking today ad I say mujaddara - a traditional rice and lentil dish, with fried onions sprinkled on top, that she taught me how to make. I tell her that I never seem to be able to match the crispiness of her onions. She gives me some advice about it - frying them in hotter oil and letting them sit in a strainer for a while. I ask her about Uncle, and she says he's still waking up in the middle of the night, asking about his mother. Once again, I feel grateful that Mum's mind is untarnished. We talk about Covid again for a minute or so. Then she asks me what am I cooking today.”
― Abbas El-Zein, Bullet, Paper, Rock: A Memoir of Words and Wars
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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics posts views last activity  
Middle East/North...: * 2019 MENA Lit Challenge Progress 118 137 Jan 01, 2020 12:11PM  
Around the World ...: Lebanon 28 1258 Jul 29, 2025 04:55PM  


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