The Curtain Maker of Beirut: Conversations with the Lebanese - Tapa blanda

An immensely rich account of sometimes harrowing conversations and encounters that add up to a history not only of events but of feelings, an entire people s feelings. --Kanan Makiya

It is March, 2006. At a sit-in for the "Disappeared" in downtown Beirut, an old woman describes the abduction of her teenage son by the Syrians in 1978. She is still waiting to learn his fate. For such a woman - and there are many such women - the trauma of the Lebanese civil war has not yet ended. In this unusual and poignant book - now available in paperback - author Teresa Thornhill explores Beirut and its hinterland. She is pregnant during her first visit and returns later with her partner and young son. In conversations with housewives, intellectuals, fishermen, and taxi drivers, Thornhill attempts to understand how Lebanese from the various sects which make up this small country - including Druze, Christian, Shi'a, and Sunni - live with their memories of the war, how they feel about each other, and how they view the Palestinian refugees who live among them.