This kind of reminded me of Three Apples Fell from the Sky by Narine Abgaryan so if you were into that, you will probably find this one interesting as well. The novels share the same take on the family saga with a focus on a close-knit small community that is facing some difficult issues, but in this one the setting is not very well explained and for someone who is not familiar with Lebanese history it might prove difficult to navigate. I confess that at times I did not understand the references to different ethnicities, religious conflicts etc. and that I would have liked for the author or at least the editor to have been kind enough to introduce some footnotes to help me out (this is one of the few exceptions where I actually wanted footnotes and I was deprived of them since generally I find them disruptive and not very helpful). From what I could understand, the novel's main theme is that of a community's attempt to isolate itself from external forces in order to protect its way of life, an attempt which fails miserably for the community in question, since the community itself is not able to find the means to be peaceful. This is a community which has its own saints, its own traditions, which is deeply connected to the natural landscape, especially the cedar trees which are seen as God's trees, and which is affected not only by external interferences, but also by internal conflicts between different tribes. Barakat also talks about transgenerational trauma and also about the loss of traditions and the impossibility of maintaining these traditions which no longer provide resources for earning a livelihood (I am primarily referring here to Tannous who inherited a soft female voice that is a tradition among the males in his family, but cannot use it because he lacks the words necessary to sing since his father died tragically when Tannous was still young). Another interesting character is that of Salma, Tannous sister, who remains childless (like Tannous) and has a similar difficulty in maintaining traditions because she has a different perspective of what community means (for her, all human beings, not only those in the local community) and finds herself more and more isolated and in conflict with others who do not understand community in the same manner.