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    I Remember Beirut
    I Remember Beirut
    I Remember Beirut
    Ebook94 pages55 minutes

    I Remember Beirut

    By Zeina Abirached

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Zeina Abirached, author of the award-winning graphic novel A Game for Swallows, returns with a powerful collection of wartime memories.

    Abirached was born in Lebanon in 1981. She grew up in Beirut as fighting between Christians and Muslims divided the city streets. Follow her past cars riddled with bullet holes, into taxi cabs that travel where buses refuse to go, and on outings to collect shrapnel from the sidewalk.

    With striking black-and-white artwork, Abirached recalls the details of ordinary life inside a war zone.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLerner Publishing
    Release dateAug 1, 2014
    ISBN9781467772822
    I Remember Beirut
    Author

    Zeina Abirached

    Zeina Abirached was born in Beirut in the middle of the civil war. She studied graphic arts in Lebanon but moved to Paris in 2004, where she attended the National School of Decorative Arts. In 2006, she published her first two graphic novels with publisher Cambourakis, Beyrouth-Catharsis and 38, Rue Youssef Semaani. Her short animated film Mouton was nominated during the fifth international film festival in Tehran. A Game For Swallows (Graphic Universe, 2012) has won numerous awards, including being named an ALA Notable Children's Book and a YALSA Great Graphic Novel for Teens. Je Me Souviens Beyrouth (I Remember Beirut), the follow-up to A Game For Swallows, was published in French by Cambourakis in 2008.

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    Reviews for I Remember Beirut

    4/5

    68 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      AUG - The author is Christian Lebanese and was born and grew up during the Muslim/Christian Civil War in Beirut. This is her second graphic novel of memoirs of her childhood. This book is a collection of vignettes of "I remembers" as Zeinia recalls a childhood life in an active war torn war zone. There is no plot or overarching story. The author is simply bringing up memories from her childhood. Read from a Western perspective of someone who has never known war it all comes across as sad and bittersweet but even though their car is riddled with bulletholes they had good times together, life was not all suffering. The children didn't know what it was like to have running water or electricity; this seems unimaginable to my way of life and would be an utter hardship, but they knew no difference and life simply was the way it was for them. This book is entirely written at a level for the intended audience bringing home to Western children just how well off they are to be able to take a bus to school without fear of being shot at. The book is not political though; it is not about the war, why the war is happening; it is not about religion or any of the factors of this war. It just simply tells of everyday life events for a family living in this environment and trying to have as normal a life as possible and is certainly not without its share of humour either. I love the dark doodled art; the black and white is stark and atmospheric of war but the swirls and curlicues show the whimsy of childhood.
    • 4/5
      I Remember Beirut by Zeina Abirached is a graphic novel style memoir about growing up in Beirut during the fighting between Muslims and Christians. Though her block wasn't in the contested area, it was close enough to make life difficult and sometimes dangerous.Rather than focusing on the danger and destruction, Abirached hones in on the mundanity of childhood. She talks about hair cuts, and paper folding, and favorite songs. The scenes of her curly hair vs the overly conservative barber are hilarious. The fighting is there too, of course. It comes in the form of memories of the ever moving bus stop, the trips to the coast to avoid the worst of the fighting, the repeatedly broken windshield on the car, and her brother's interest in collecting shrapnel.Recommended for readers who enjoy the works of Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis, Chicken with Plums, etc.).
    • 4/5
      In this companion to A Game for Swallows, Abirached recalls the details of daily life inside a war zone in Beirut. Stark, evocative, and poignant.
    • 5/5
      personal stories and experience of living through wars in Beirut as a child and teen. Beautiful illustrations. Loved it
    • 3/5
      Written like a children's book, containing snippets of daily life during the Lebanon civil war of the 70s and 80s. Most of it seemed more inconvenient than threatening.

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