White Masks

With empathy, tenderness, and pain, Elias Khoury tells the tragedy of the Lebanese Civil War through the eyes and lives of five Beirutis. Khalil Ahmed Jaber is found dead in a refuse heap, and we follow a journalist investigating the crime. We learn about Khalil from his widow, an engineer, a concierge, the garbage collector who discovered his body, and a doctor. Beirut itself is also a transfigured victim, buried in the rubble of violence, destruction, and inhumanity.Elias Khoury 's Gate of the Sun (deemed a "masterwork" by The New York Times ) was a 2006 New York Times Notable book and was named Best Book of the Year by both The Christian Science Monitor and the San Francisco Chronicle . His Yalo inspired the Los Angeles Times to assert that "the beautiful, resilient city of Beirut belongs to Khoury."

Elias Khoury, born in Beirut, is the author of thirteen novels, four volumes of literary criticism, and three plays. He was awarded the Palestine Prize for Gate of the Sun, which was named Best Book of the Year by Le Monde Diplomatique, The Christian Science Monitor, and The San Fransisco Chronicle, and a Notable Book by The New York Times. Khoury's Yalo, As Though She Were Sleeping, Little Mountain, The Journey of Little Gandhi, and City Gates are also available in English. Khoury is a Global Distinguished Professor of Middle Eastern and Arabic Studies at New York University. As Though She Were Sleeping received France's inaugural Arabic novel Prize.

Maia Tabet, born in Lebanon, is a literary translator and a professional cook. She translated Khoury’s first novel to be published in English, Little Mountain, and has translated a number of prose texts that have appeared in literary magazines including Banipal, Words Without Borders, and Fikran wa Fann. Currently, she lives in the United States.