The Mehlis Report (book)
.jpg) First edition (Arabic) | ||
| Author | Rabee Jaber | |
|---|---|---|
| Translator | Kareem James Abu-Zeid | |
| Cover artist | Paul Sahre | |
| Country | Lebanon | |
| Language | Arabic | |
| Genre | ||
| Publisher | LC Class | PJ7840.A289T3513 2013 |
The Mehlis Report is a book by
Synopsis
Plot
The protagonist of Rabee Jaber’s novel is Saman Yarid, a 40-year-old architect living in East Beirut in late 2005, who, like many of his fellow Lebanese citizens, is greatly anticipating the release of the
The book is structured so that the reader constantly wonders what is going on, while slowly revealing information. The reader finds out who the narrator is on page 131, when she says her name is Josephine, Saman’s sister. The reader also does not know who Mehlis is until page 24 in the book, when Saman tells Mary that “there’s an international commission investigating things […with…] German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis […] presenting his report to the UN in just a few days.”
Characters
- Saman Yarid is the main subject of the novel. He is in charge of the Yarid Architecture and Design Agency, which is located in the middle of Beirut. He lives in Achrafieh, a neighborhood in Beirut. He has three sisters. All of his family left Lebanon years ago to avoid the violence. As he walks around Beirut at night, Saman experiences multiple events, such as witnessing two people playing around with a car at night.[1]
- Cecilia is Saman's girlfriend. She works at a store called Monoprix.[1]
- Josephine Yarid is one of Saman's three sisters. In 1983, she was kidnapped. Josephine is the narrator of the book, speaking from beyond the grave. She watches the daily routines of Saman on the televisions in the afterlife.[1]
- Mary Yarid is one of Saman's three sisters. She lives in Baltimore and is married to her cousin. She and her husband live with four children and own a Lebanese restaurant and a bakery. She keeps calling Saman, asking for him to visit.[1]
- Emily Yarid is one of Saman's three sisters. She lives in Paris and works for UNESCO as a translator. She keeps writing Saman letters begging him to leave East Beirut.[1]
Publication
Development
Rabee Jaber is a Lebanese novelist whose 18 books have made him distinguished in the Arabic speaking world. He was born in Beirut in 1972 and has been the editor of the Al-Hayat newspaper's weekly cultural supplement since 2001. Three of his books have been nominated for and another has been awarded the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, which was created in 2008 – three years after The Mehlis Report was first published in Arabic.[3] Jaber's writings, similar to the writings of many modern Lebanese authors, draw a lot of influence from Lebanon's civil war and the recent history of violence that has stuck with the Lebanese people.[4]
Translation
Egyptian-American translator Kareem James Abu-Zeid translated The Mehlis Report from Arabic into English. An award-winning translator, Abu-Zeid also translated Jaber's Confessions, Najwan Darwish's Nothing More to Lose, and Dunya Mikhail’s The Iraqi Nights from Arabic into English.[5]
Historical Context
The United Nations' Mehlis Report
Lebanese Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War, from 1975 to 1990, involved multiple groups fighting against one another and multiple foreign powers, such as Israel and Syria, invading Lebanon.[6] An estimated 120,000 people died as a result of the Civil War.[7] Following the Civil War, all militias were ordered to disband, but a few refused to do so and fought with the Lebanese Army over the next few years.[6] Israel withdrew its forces from Lebanon in 2000.[6] While the book takes place in 2005, the history of Lebanon's Civil War still has a big impact on the way Lebanese society functions and on the way the main character, Saman Yarid, sees his city.[1]
Themes
Some themes in the book are death, family, and the afterlife. The narrator for the majority of the book, Josephine, is dead and discusses how her death and the deaths of other people have helped defined the Lebanon Saman knows so well. The family of Saman is an important aspect of the book because he is always thinking about them and they keep begging him to leave Lebanon and join them. Similar to death, talk of the afterlife is featured extensively when Josephine describes her situation and what it is like to be dead.[1]
Critical reception
Originally, few critics outside of Lebanon reviewed The Mehlis Report. However spreading abroad it picked up positive reviews. The
The Nation reviewed the book positively, stating it "creates a foil in death to a governing culture", excellently considering the issues of Lebanon, its intelligence services and Lebanon society's inability to come to terms with its actions.[9]
NPR also rated the book positively, praising its ability to draw in readers into a different world while inspiring mourning for "this elegy for a lost Beirut".[10]
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8112-2064-4.
- ^ a b Mehlis, Detlev (19 October 2005). "Report of the International Independent Investigation Commission Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1595". The United Nations.
- ^ "Rabee Jaber / International Prize for Arabic Fiction". www.arabicfiction.org. The International Prize for Arabic Fiction. 14 October 2018.
- ^ Lynx-Qualey, M. (28 March 2016). "Rabee Jaber's novel 'Confessions' explores notions of identity, Lebanese Civil War". The Chicago Tribune.
- ^ "Kareem James Abu-Zeid". Words Without Borders.
- ^ a b c "Lebanon Profile". BBC News. BBC News. 25 April 2018.
- ^ UN Human Rights Council. "Implementation of General Assembly Resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006 Entitled Human Rights Council," 23 November 2006, p.18.
- ^ Creswell, Robyn (20 July 2013). "Chasing Beirut's Ghosts". The New York Review of Books. The New York Review of Books.
- ^ Frederick Deknatel. "Book review: Rabee Jaber's The Mehlis Report describes life, death and loss in Lebanon". The Nation. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
- ^ Alan Cheuse (1 July 2013). "Book Review: 'The Mehlis Report'". NPR. Retrieved 11 January 2019.