This is Beirut - Literature

Algeria court upholds writer Sansal's five-year jail term

This is Beirut, 01/07 16:43 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Literature Trial Boualem Sansal Algeria France Culture

An Algerian court on Tuesday upheld a five-year prison sentence against dual-national author Boualem Sansal, whose case has strained ties with France. Sansal, 80, was first sentenced to five years behind bars on March 27 on charges related to undermining Algeria's territorial integrity over comments made to a French media outlet. The appeals ...

Short-Cycle Prose: Georges Perec, the Washing Machine’s Poet

Bélinda Ibrahim, 27/05 17:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Georges Perec Washing Machine Writer Literature Poet Culture

A drum, a muffled sound, cycles, programs. A round door swings open onto the world’s laundry. A washing machine, yes – but for Georges Perec, it’s never just an appliance. It’s a trigger – his engine for writing. In the workshop of this master of literary constraints, even the most ordinary object can become a source of invention. ...

Salman Rushdie Says 'Pleased' With Attacker's Jail Sentence

This is Beirut, 27/05 10:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Literature Salman Rushdie Justice US London Culture

Salman Rushdie said Monday he was "pleased" with the maximum 25-year jail sentence handed to a man who tried to kill him with a knife at a New York cultural center in 2022. "I was pleased that he got the maximum available, and hopefully he uses it to reflect upon his deeds," Rushdie told BBC radio in an interview. Hadi Matar was sentenced to 25 ...

Jacqueline Harpman’s Forgotten Feminist Novel Finds New Global Fame

This is Beirut, 30/04 10:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Novel Literature Culture Writing

The reissue of I Who Have Never Known Men by Belgian author Jacqueline Harpman marks the unexpected resurgence of a feminist dystopian novel. Critically acclaimed upon its 1995 release, the book has found new life on social media in the 2020s. Following successful reissues in the UK and US, French publisher Stock is now bringing the haunting ...

Set of Shakespeare Folios to be Sold in Rare London Auction

This is Beirut, 23/04 19:20 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Britain Literature Auction Shakespeare Sotheby's Culture

A set of four Shakespeare folios estimated to be worth more than £3.5 million ($4.7 million) will go on sale in London next month, auction house Sotheby's said Wednesday. The First Folio, published in 1623, was the first collection of William Shakespeare's plays and is considered one of the most important books in English literature. Without ...

Frances Mayes Awarded Italian Citizenship for Literary Merit

This is Beirut, 19/04 13:00 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Author Literature US Italy

The Italian government announced Friday its decision to grant honorary citizenship to American author Frances Mayes, known globally for her best-selling memoir Under the Tuscan Sun. Officials cited “exceptional merit” as the reason behind the move. In an official statement, authorities confirmed that the Italian Council of Ministers had ...

The Freida McFadden Phenomenon Confuses French Literary Critics

This is Beirut, 16/04 14:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Movie Literature US France Thriller Culture

Why are American author Freida McFadden’s psychological thrillers selling so well in France? French literary critics are trying to understand the craze but remain doubtful about the true merit of her work. The Housemaid was the best-selling book in France in 2024, with over 600,000 copies sold. By the end of February 2025, it had crossed the ...

When Vargas Llosa Punched García Márquez: A Journalist Witness Recalls

This is Beirut, 16/04 09:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Peru Literature Llosa Mexico Marquez Culture

When journalist and novelist Elena Poniatowska headed to a film premiere in Mexico City, she had no idea she was about to witness the literary feud of the century as two future Nobel laureates came to blows. It was February 12, 1976, and Poniatowska wound up seated next to Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his wife Mercedes to watch the ...

Mario Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian Novelist Who Became a Writer in France

Madeleine Cadoux, 14/04 13:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Nobel Prize Mario Vargas Llosa literature France Peru

Born in 1936 in Arequipa, Peru, Vargas Llosa left his homeland in the 1950s, believing that true literary ambition could only flourish elsewhere. He arrived in Paris in 1959 at the age of 23 with his first wife, Julia Urquidi, who would later inspire Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter. He found a city pulsing with intellectual energy—where Sartre ...

Great Writers, Gentle Neuroses, Small Literary Miracles (2/2)

Bélinda Ibrahim, 05/04 18:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Writers Neuroses Literature Culture

Literature loves outsiders. But what it cherishes most are organized outsiders—those who turn their strangeness into a narrative engine, their questionable lifestyles into bursts of staggering productivity. This second part focuses on writers who today might be considered, depending on one’s perspective, either misunderstood geniuses or ...

Great Writers, Gentle Neuroses, Small Literary Miracles (1/2)

Bélinda Ibrahim, 04/04 18:30 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Literature Writers Culture Neuroses

The act of writing is peculiar in that it lies at the crossroads of inspiration and method – between the sudden emergence of words and the mechanics of movement. For some authors, routine becomes a sacred ritual, a meticulously orchestrated sequence of gestures meant to ward off the terror of the blank page. Others find in it a form of ...

Boualem Sansal’s Speech for Freedom Published in Bookstores

This is Beirut, 04/04 17:45 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Literature Edition Freedom Algeria France Boualem Sansal culture

This speech, given for “the German Publishers and Booksellers Peace Prize” and published in Gallimard’s Tracts collection, was originally delivered in Frankfurt, Germany, in October 2011. "The absence of freedom is a pain that drives one mad over time. It reduces a man to his shadow and his dreams to nightmares," Boualem Sansal declares in ...

Literature