Leaving Beirut by Mai Ghoussoub
Leaving Beirut is a moving testimony of the experience of one individual of the Lebanese civil war. This autobiographical account is a reflection of a self exiled Lebanese on the state of things after the end of the war. As she ponders on the lives of the people she knew and how they have been changed by the horrid events of the war, Mai wonders what she would have been like had she stayed. The late Mai Ghoussoub was co-founder of the infamous Saqi books publishing house, one of “the most vibrant, daring and humanist independent publishers in the world.”

Transit Beirut: New Writing and Images by Collective
Transit Beirut is a testimony to the flexibility of the Lebanese and their capacity to adapt to the banalities and atrocities alike. With pieces by writers such as Rabih Alameddine, author of Kool Aids, and Hassan Daoud mixed in with graphic art and texts by literary newcomers, this book can be read over and over and over againand you'll always find something you had missed the first time around. It’s a brilliant collection which provides insight on a new generation of thinkers and writers.

B As In Beirut by Iman Humaydan Younes
Iman Humaydan Younes’s debut novel B As In Beirut deals with war through the “citizen” accounts of four women living in the same apartment block in the 70s. The book is thus divided into four sections, each told by one of the women who often make appearances in each other’s stories. The novel was created from text fragments written by Younes herself during the 1975-1990 civil war. It is ultimately a book about the nature of war and the capacity of human beings to adapt to unimaginable conditions and extreme violence where Beirut is represented in fragments.

Beirut. I Love You: A Memoir by Zena Al Khalil
The book spans over the lives of three of Zena’s reincarnation: her first reincarnation as Hussein in 1900, her second reincarnation as Asmahan in 1917, and finally, her third reincarnation as the Zena we come to know throughout the book. This book deals less with the city at war than the idea of living in postwar Beirut. It is the tale of an individual through her relationships and her connections rather than through the depiction of the polarized groups that make up the basis of Lebanese society. This autobiographical account is a love hate relationship with Beirut, where Zena’s love for the city and her frustration at seeing it approach its problems with absence of intellect and logic collide.

A Beirut Heart: One Woman's War by Cathy Sultan
In the spirit of B As In Beirut, Cathy Sultan’s book is about the war’s unsung heroes, the women, who kept their families up and running throughout the war. An American, married to a Lebanese physician, Sultan tells of the 8 years she spent in war-time Lebanon and how cooking was her trick to maintaining sanity.

Beirut In Shades Of Grey by Dana Kamal Mills
25-year-old Rasha Halwani, daughter of a conservative Muslim family in war-torn 1981 Beirut, is the main character of Beirut born Mills’ debut novel. Visiting an aunt in Paris she falls in love with Christian, English Reuters photojournalist Luke Elliot. After returning to the war torn city, Racha is surprised to find Luke at her door step. Having been brought up in a traditional family, she battles with herself, her upbringing and her faith. Then Luke goes missing and everything escalates. A beautifully told story which provides insight into the events that had Lebanon shaking through a positively human account.

Once Upon a Time in Beirut: A Journey to the Heart by Catherine Taylor
As of 2001 Catherine Taylor moved to Beirut to work as a foreign correspondent. Her book Once Upon a Time in Beirut is an account of her personal experiences in Beirut over a period of five years, five rather tumultuous years for the region. Interviewing everyone from a local hashish farmer to an Egyptian female boxer to Osama Bin Laden's best friend Taylor takes us on a journey through a complex and contradictory country.

Beirut 39: New Writing from the Arab World by Collective
Beirut 39 is a Hay Festival project. It consists of selecting 39 of the most representative Arabic authors under the age of 40 and hopefully stumbling upon the upcoming talents. Coinciding with the Beirut39 festival running in Beirut from 15 to 18 April 2010, Bloomsbury will publish Beirut 39, an anthology of fiction and poetry by the 39 selected authors with an introduction by the Lebanese author Amin Maalouf.