Charif Majdalani - Beirut 2020: Diary of the Collapse

Praise for

Beirut 2020:
Diary of the Collapse

For anyone who knows Lebanon or is newly curious about it in light of recent events, Charif Majdalanis Beirut 2020: Diary of the Collapse is a brisk, stunningly vivid, crushing account of a country in the midst of total self-annihilation. Its a must-read for Lebanese abroad whove missed out on the events of the past two years in Beirut and in the country at large, and for expats and visitors, both past and future, who have long admired this beautiful and vexed country. Especially for those Lebanese who feel survivors guilt as they watch the devastation from afar, its a brutally honest account of whats happened, what keeps happening, and perhaps what has happened once and for allin the most hopeful sense possibleto a place we cherish.

Salma Abdelnour, author of Jasmine and Fire:
A Bittersweet Year in Beirut

Covid-19, the economic crisis, the bankruptcy of the government, and the devastating explosion at the Port of Beirut on August 4, 2020. This is the chronicle of surrender that we witness in slow motion as Lebanon descends into social, economic, and political ruin. This is the diary of a man passionate about his country, written with anger and heartbreaking eloquence. This is the testimony of the mind-boggling absurdities of everyday life set against their political and historical sweep. While in the background there is the hum of the electricity generator and the smell of gardenias. Majdalani is magnificent.

Kerry Young, author of Pao

Charif Majdalanis Beirut 2020: Diary of the Collapse is the most important work of literature from a year of shared global tragedy. In astute and despairing prose, Majdalani shows us his beloved citys pain, as the beauty and resilience of Lebanon are smothered by a surreal and menacing culture of government corruption and political rot. And then comes the explosion on August 4 of some 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate. Majdalanis account of the explosion and the days following is intimately personal and particular to Beiruts devastation. At the same time, in Majdalanis wisdom Beiruts tragedy becomes a global cry. The same forces of oligarchy, corruption, and deliberate incompetence threaten all of us with cascading collapses of climate and ecological systems.

Nathaniel Popkin, author of To Reach the Spring:
From Complicity to Consciousness
in the Age of Eco-Crisis

The authors hometown is falling apart. He watches with sorrow as life leaks from its body, drop by drop. Lebanons capital, which had been, for decades, the living symbol of the Levant, of its cosmopolitan cultures, of its joie de vivre, has morphed into a symbol of devastation and hatred and madness. Charif Majdalani is a survivor who still finds in himself the elegance to smile and hope.

Amin Maalouf, author of The Crusades
Through Arab Eyes and The Disoriented

A searing, emotional rollercoaster of a read that deftly illustrates the despair and desperation Lebanese people endure daily. Majdalani expertly captures the hopelessness that most if not all Lebanese feel. And yet he still manages to entertain the reader with his sharp and cynical commentary on the countrys absurdities and injustices. As a Lebanese person myself, I felt like I was looking in the mirror as I read Majdalanis powerful and vivid words. I could not help but cry throughout. But I also felt less alone.

Zahra Hankir, journalist and editor of Our Women
on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women
Reporting from the Arab World

More than an invaluable testimony, Majdalani has written almost a vade mecum with a universal scope. A life lesson in complete humility in the face of tragedy.

Le Point

Political reflections, from which the authors cold anger springs, intertwine with his doubts and fears for the future. In strokes shot through with humor and dark irony, he builds on the portrait of a chaotic, lurching daily life.

Le Monde

A searing text.

Lire Magazine Littraire

A book at once deeply affecting and very cognizant of history.

France Inter, Lheure bleue

In his remarkable Beirut 2020: Diary of the Collapse, author Charif Majdalani examines the raw wounds of his country.

La Vie

A book of rare acuity.

Transfuge

ALSO BY CHARIF MAJDALANI

Moving the Palace

Originally published in French as

Beyrouth 2020: Journal dun effondrement in 2020

by Actes Sud, Arles, France

Copyright Actes Sud, 2020

Translation copyright Ruth Diver, 2021

Production editor: Yvonne E. Crdenas

Text designer: Jennifer Daddio / Bookmark Design & Media Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from Other Press LLC, except in the case of brief quotations in reviews for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast.

For information write to Other Press LLC, 267 Fifth Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10016.

Or visit our Web site: www.otherpress.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Names: Majdalani, Charif, 1960- author. | Diver, Ruth, translator.

Title: Beirut 2020 : diary of the collapse / Charif Majdalani; translated from

the French by Ruth Diver.

Other titles: Beyrouth 2020. English

Description: New York : Other Press, 2021. | Originally published in French

as Beyrouth 2020: Journal dun effondrement in 2020 by Actes Sud, Arles,

FranceTitle page verso.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021008274 (print) | LCCN 2021008275 (ebook) |

ISBN 9781635421781 (paperback) | ISBN 9781635421798 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Majdalani, Charif, 1960Diaries. | Authors, Lebanese21st centuryDiaries. | Industrial accidentsLebanonBeirutHistory21st century. | LebanonHistory21st century.

Classification: LCC PQ3979.3.M34 Z46 2021 (print) |

LCC PQ3979.3.M34 (ebook) | DDC 848/.912dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021008274

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021008275

Ebook ISBN9781635421798

a_prh_5.7.0_c0_r0

PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE EDITION

Lebanon:
The Lessons of Complexity

During a stay in Beirut for a writers residency, a French author once declared that Lebanon condensed and summarized in itself all the problems of the modern world, and that if only one of these problems could be resolved in Lebanon, it could then serve as a model solution for the rest of the planet.

The problems this writer was referring to are certainly numerous, and cover issues such as governance, the relationship of citizens with the state, political tensions, the power of the banks, untrammeled liberalism, and the endemic corruption of the ruling classes. And in a wider sense, the writer was of course focusing on the question of multiculturalism, the mix and coexistence of religions and culturesissues that are part of the very foundation of modern Lebanon and its government structure.