The Book of Khalid
Authorship not stated
You play Shakib, a young poet leaving Baalbek at night with your friend Khalid, a rug of unsold poems on your shoulder and no passports between you. A boatman wants half his fee now and half for his silence. An Ottoman clerk calls your steamer tickets decorations and waits with his hand open. On the ship's ledger he writes peddler beside your name without asking. Rihani's opening — the first Arab American novel — ends with the gangway rising and Lebanon going dark behind it.
Read The Book of KhalidChapters
- Via DolorosaBeirut Harbor