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Rebirth: A Love Story From the Depths of War
Antoun Issa powerfully captures his mother's true experiences of love, heartbreak and new hope during the violence of civil war.
Beirut, 1974. Laila Khalil has just come of age for marriage. The eldest of five in a poor Catholic family, Laila knows that she must fulfil her family's expectations. But her heart is drawn to the handsome Nicolas, a coiffeur at a local hair salon. Dodging the watchful eyes in their patriarchal society, particularly those of Laila's domineering father, the two young lovers begin a tender romance. Soon, they begin to make plans for marriage.
But Laila's dreams are dashed when the Lebanese Civil War breaks out.
Shells whir overhead as Laila's family are caught in heavy clashes between the Christian Phalangists and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. When tragedy strikes, Laila watches all her hopes wither to ash. But just as life seems its darkest, a lifeline presents the prospect of migration to a faraway land called Australia.
Rebirth brings to light a young woman's extraordinary journey through war, tragedy, migration and renewal.
Beirut, 1974. Laila Khalil has just come of age for marriage. The eldest of five in a poor Catholic family, Laila knows that she must fulfil her family's expectations. But her heart is drawn to the handsome Nicolas, a coiffeur at a local hair salon. Dodging the watchful eyes in their patriarchal society, particularly those of Laila's domineering father, the two young lovers begin a tender romance. Soon, they begin to make plans for marriage.
But Laila's dreams are dashed when the Lebanese Civil War breaks out.
Shells whir overhead as Laila's family are caught in heavy clashes between the Christian Phalangists and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. When tragedy strikes, Laila watches all her hopes wither to ash. But just as life seems its darkest, a lifeline presents the prospect of migration to a faraway land called Australia.
Rebirth brings to light a young woman's extraordinary journey through war, tragedy, migration and renewal.
314 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 28, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
Review of advance copy
Stars don't seem an adequate measure of this book. Admirers of Issa's journalism will recognise his incredible eye for detail in this book. The generation scars of war do not fade quickly. Urgent and desperate– a story that shouldn't be missed by Australians.
May 12, 2026
I cried through the last chapter. I cried through the epilogue. I even cried through the acknowledgments!
That line… “here in this land, our stomachs are fed while our hearts go hungry” …. it broke me.
A line that describes the yearning felt by every child in the diaspora.
This is such a beautiful and honourable story of love for our mothers, our ancestors, our lands, our heritage and our search for identity.
I cried.
That line… “here in this land, our stomachs are fed while our hearts go hungry” …. it broke me.
A line that describes the yearning felt by every child in the diaspora.
This is such a beautiful and honourable story of love for our mothers, our ancestors, our lands, our heritage and our search for identity.
I cried.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy
Rebirth: A Love Story From the Depths of War cleverly weaves a layered and complex geopolitical history into a compelling love story. Set in a beautiful yet fragile ancient country, the novel explores how waves of refugees and shifting political tensions shape everyday life. Amid this geopolitical maelstrom, a young couple’s forbidden love struggles to survive under the constant threat of violence and civil war. Like all great love stories, it is a story of hope, danger, sacrifice, and ultimately finding safety in a foreign land. Woven within this poignant story is another deeply personal one, as the author pays homage to his extraordinary mother. Importantly, the book also highlights the country’s vulnerability to outside forces, continual threats of invasion, and the devastating realities of displacement, ethnic cleansing, and war that still resonate today. Highly recommend.
July 28, 2026
Beirut, 1974.
Having grown up in the hangover of the Lebanese Civil War, I knew this book would be emotionally devastating. What I did not realise was just how much I would have to distance myself from the words at times because of how close to home it would be. Laila, the main character, and the author’s mum, was almost an adult when the War started, while my mum had just been born. Nevertheless, the two women share a depth and pain that not many can understand.
The writing of this book is masterfully done, a true testament to Issa’s storytelling skills (perhaps inherited from our ancestors). The way he weaves words together makes the numerous generations of scars still feel tender to touch. The sensory experience that this book takes you on was possibly my favourite part. I have found that to be a common thread in Arab authors, we love to smell the jasmine and taste the rice.
The compassion that the author extends to the characters is a rarity in a world that too often misses nuance in conversations about war. Every single character helped weave the story into a tapestry in which no thread has its place. Rebirth also allowed my mother and I to have long conversations in which google scholar and archive.com were consulted.
Some parts of the book did feel a bit too expository to me, someone who knows and understands Lebanon’s history intimately. However, readers less familiar with that history might find that valuable.
Lebanon. So beautiful. So fragile. My favourite place on Earth. This book presents you with the honesty and warmth you deserve.
A beautiful story that honours our mothers, our heritage, our ancestors, and Lebanon.
Having grown up in the hangover of the Lebanese Civil War, I knew this book would be emotionally devastating. What I did not realise was just how much I would have to distance myself from the words at times because of how close to home it would be. Laila, the main character, and the author’s mum, was almost an adult when the War started, while my mum had just been born. Nevertheless, the two women share a depth and pain that not many can understand.
The writing of this book is masterfully done, a true testament to Issa’s storytelling skills (perhaps inherited from our ancestors). The way he weaves words together makes the numerous generations of scars still feel tender to touch. The sensory experience that this book takes you on was possibly my favourite part. I have found that to be a common thread in Arab authors, we love to smell the jasmine and taste the rice.
The compassion that the author extends to the characters is a rarity in a world that too often misses nuance in conversations about war. Every single character helped weave the story into a tapestry in which no thread has its place. Rebirth also allowed my mother and I to have long conversations in which google scholar and archive.com were consulted.
Some parts of the book did feel a bit too expository to me, someone who knows and understands Lebanon’s history intimately. However, readers less familiar with that history might find that valuable.
Lebanon. So beautiful. So fragile. My favourite place on Earth. This book presents you with the honesty and warmth you deserve.
A beautiful story that honours our mothers, our heritage, our ancestors, and Lebanon.
July 5, 2026
4.5 I’m so glad I read this poignant book; it taught me a lot about the complexities of the Lebanese civil war (from the mid 70’s until 90’s) and a part of the world that I knew very little about. (I like Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s writings such as The Lebs, but they are firmly based in the Australian based migrant experience, whereas the vast majority of this book is based in Lebanon during the 70s. The move to Australia occurs very late in the novel and is really only touched on) Laila, the author’s mother, is a great character and so strong and loving. I loved her complexity. What an amazing feat to novelise your mother’s early life and drivers. Rounded down from a 5 slightly as there were some passages I found to be a little flowery for my liking but this is a very minor quibble. Overall highly, highly recommend. Loving and profound and provoked a deep empathy in me. It really took me to another world and I felt like I was in Lebanon during the days I was reading it. (I also googled images of different places mentioned in the book as I was reading which aided my imagination). I also wanted to finish it quickly and return it to the library so more people can read and relish it!
P. 288 “Here, in this land, our stomachs are fed while our hearts go hungry.”
P. 288 “Here, in this land, our stomachs are fed while our hearts go hungry.”
July 29, 2026
I came to this book just as I have been wanting to read more and feel more. I didn't expect it to break me open the way it did, over two nights. More tears than I've shed reading a book in as long as I can remember.
Antoun Issa has written his mother's story with the precision of a journalist and the heart of a poet. Laila is not just a symbol of an era. She's a specific person with specific desires, faced with navigating tradition and love in a world that has very firm ideas about what she's allowed to want. She is very much alive in the pages.
The sentences stopped me repeatedly. I had to look up from the page just to sit with what he'd done. No clichés, no over-description. Everything is visual and precise.
I'll be honest. I'm an Australian Anglo man who knew Lebanese families had left in the seventies but didn't really know what the war was about. This book filled that gap with grace and without judgment. It also made me reframe things I'd walked past my whole life without truly seeing.
The grief of migration is created here with an intimacy that is almost unbearable. In the best possible way.
Read this book. Then go plant something.
Antoun Issa has written his mother's story with the precision of a journalist and the heart of a poet. Laila is not just a symbol of an era. She's a specific person with specific desires, faced with navigating tradition and love in a world that has very firm ideas about what she's allowed to want. She is very much alive in the pages.
The sentences stopped me repeatedly. I had to look up from the page just to sit with what he'd done. No clichés, no over-description. Everything is visual and precise.
I'll be honest. I'm an Australian Anglo man who knew Lebanese families had left in the seventies but didn't really know what the war was about. This book filled that gap with grace and without judgment. It also made me reframe things I'd walked past my whole life without truly seeing.
The grief of migration is created here with an intimacy that is almost unbearable. In the best possible way.
Read this book. Then go plant something.
July 9, 2026
I hadn’t heard of Antoun Issa before reading this but turns out he’s a pretty cool guy who founded deepcut news and is a journalist who reports primarily on the Middle East.
This was a non fiction narrative drawing from Issa’s mum’s experiences during the Lebanese Civil War. The prose was really beautiful to read and the story felt incredibly raw and real.
My favourite aspect was that the book made a conscious decision to not focus on who was right or wrong in the war but instead chooses to emphasise the unjust suffering of civilians at the expense of political violence. In fact, Laila’s story has many characters from different factions of the war and ALL are negatively affected.
Very grateful I found this at the street library - it’s even a signed copy!
reading around the world : Lebanon
This was a non fiction narrative drawing from Issa’s mum’s experiences during the Lebanese Civil War. The prose was really beautiful to read and the story felt incredibly raw and real.
My favourite aspect was that the book made a conscious decision to not focus on who was right or wrong in the war but instead chooses to emphasise the unjust suffering of civilians at the expense of political violence. In fact, Laila’s story has many characters from different factions of the war and ALL are negatively affected.
Very grateful I found this at the street library - it’s even a signed copy!
reading around the world : Lebanon
Review of advance copy
This is deeply intimate and tender storytelling of a grueling part of Lebanon's history. Told through the lens of the people, families, civilians, at the heart of conflict and strife, with intersecting themes of home, indigeneity, class, heritage, and gender. This is a reclamation of a story that has often been told by others, centering violent politics, seldom giving space to the impact on human lives, in their day to day, and how trauma manifests in the home.
Grounded in historical facts, Issa tells his mother's story with clarity, and an attempt to answer the question many in the diaspora find themselves asking, "what is our place in this world". This is a rightfully earned ode to the matriarchs of history.
Grounded in historical facts, Issa tells his mother's story with clarity, and an attempt to answer the question many in the diaspora find themselves asking, "what is our place in this world". This is a rightfully earned ode to the matriarchs of history.
July 4, 2026
Written beautifully with well-drawn characters, the novel successfully traces the journey of the author’s Lebanese mother through “war, tragedy, migration and renewal.” The years of the Lebanese civil war of the 1970s are the backdrop to this sensitive portrait of both violence and familial love.
Review of advance copy
I walked into a bookstore and this was the first and only book I picked up. My name is Leila and my husbands name is Nicholas.
What a beautiful heartache of a story. An honour to family and the pain of a county captured justly. As a daughter of immigrants, I too connected deeply with this book.
What a beautiful heartache of a story. An honour to family and the pain of a county captured justly. As a daughter of immigrants, I too connected deeply with this book.
July 24, 2026
A moving emotionallly charged story.
Lebanon's civil war in 1974 was a catostrophe for the country and tragically not much has improved in 2026 !
Generations scars leave their mark for generations and AI's skilled writing brings this to the forefront with aplomb.
Highly recommended.
Lebanon's civil war in 1974 was a catostrophe for the country and tragically not much has improved in 2026 !
Generations scars leave their mark for generations and AI's skilled writing brings this to the forefront with aplomb.
Highly recommended.
Review of advance copy received from Author
A beautiful, heart breaking, and harrowing read. Wonderful writing that engagingly captures Antoun’s mother’s experiences.
July 15, 2026
Never did I think my culture and identity could be so wonderfully and romantically represented.
June 15, 2026
My favourite book of 2026 by far.
This book took me deep into the Lebanese civil war as if my mother was telling the story herself. Every bullet, every cup of tea .. I sensed it all through the talented writing of Antoun Issa.
The book was so emotional and made me tear up a few times. Antoun managed to get so much of his mother’s life on paper and engage with readers in a balanced way.
Don’t miss this book and everyone should read it no matter your reading genre. You will not be disappointed.
This book took me deep into the Lebanese civil war as if my mother was telling the story herself. Every bullet, every cup of tea .. I sensed it all through the talented writing of Antoun Issa.
The book was so emotional and made me tear up a few times. Antoun managed to get so much of his mother’s life on paper and engage with readers in a balanced way.
Don’t miss this book and everyone should read it no matter your reading genre. You will not be disappointed.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews