Episode 367: Ten Thousand Stories in One with Rawi Hage, taped live at Aaliya's Books.

A conversation that brings childhood memories of Geitaoui, Rmeil and a bygone Achrafieh back to life.

Click to watch video version: https://youtu.be/2X5InI_nCEs

Rawi's experiences in the early years of the civil war, his brief move to Cyprus followed by a short return and an eventual departure to New York and Montreal are all covered, including his pursuit of photography and the inception for writing De Niro's Game.

The discussion includes a reflection of communal comfort and identity on the decline, a free expression that defined pre-civil war Beirut, a writing style that lends itself to bursts of creativity, and a look at secularists and outcasts in Beirut Hellfire Society .

Rawi Hage is a novelist.

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Timestamps:

0:00 Intro

5:26 Different era

21:44 Early years of the civil war

47:56 Outcast

56:22 New York

1:15:32 Montreal

1:26:29 Beirut Hellfire Society

1:39:10 The end

1:53:20 Q&A