Status Updates From Η πύλη του Ήλιου

Okay so this book is really special. I’ve been reading this for over 3 months now (though I had several weeks in between of not reading it at all. For Anna Karenina mostly). Khoury writes about Palestinian exile, ethnic cleansing and about its armed and unarmed resistance. And all in stream of consciousness. This book isn’t linear at all. It is set in a dilapidated hospital in a refugee camp outside Beirut…

A woman alone (…) hunched over on herself in that emptiness that stretches all the way to God, among the hills and valleys of Galilee, within the circle of a red sun that crawls over the ground, passing slowly and carrying with it the shadows of all things.

«في لبنان عرفنا إن مهدي مات في ترشيحا.. حين سمع الأمر الأخير بالانسحاب قال: "تفو على العرب"، سحب مسدسه، وأطلق النار على رأسه، ومات».

«فالوطن ليس البرتقال ولا الزيتون ولا جامع الجزار في عكّا.. الوطن هو أن تسقط في الهاوية.. تشعر أنك جزء من كلّ.. وتموت لأنه مات».