On the Relations of the Circle
Lebanon

On the Relations of the Circle

by Elias Khoury

Identity & Belonging Literary Fiction 2026

Summary

In Beirut on the eve of the Lebanese Civil War, a young orphan named Mansour searches for the fragments of his identity: his origins, his family name, and the father he has never known. Yet his journey unfolds in a world where reality and imagination constantly overlap. Birds speak, trees become companions, and ordinary objects seem to possess lives of their own. Through dreamlike episodes, shifting perspectives, and stories that circle back upon themselves, Elias Khoury creates a portrait of a city poised on the edge of catastrophe. Published in 1975, the same year the Lebanese Civil War began, the novel explores how individuals construct their identities amid uncertainty and how storytelling can preserve a sense of belonging when history threatens to destroy it. Both playful and haunting, this experimental work introduces themes that would become central to Khoury’s writing: memory, displacement, fractured identity, and the enduring power of imagination.

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Country
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About the author
Elias Khoury
Elias Khoury

Elias Khoury (1948–2024) was a Lebanese novelist, literary critic, and public intellectual, widely regarded as one of the most significant figures in modern Arabic literature. Born in Beirut, he wrote extensively about memory, displacement, war, and the complex histories of Lebanon and Palestine. His fiction often blends personal narratives with collective history, exploring how political violence shapes individual lives and how stories preserve the experiences of displaced communities. Among his most celebrated works is Gate of the Sun (Bab al-Shams, 1998), an epic novel recounting the Palestinian experience of exile and dispossession through interconnected stories. His other notable novels include Little Mountain (1977), set during the Lebanese Civil War, and Yalo (2002), which examines memory, torture, and the instability of truth. Through experimental narrative structures and richly layered storytelling, Khoury challenged conventional historical narratives and explored the relationship between identity, trauma, and belonging. His literary legacy remains central to contemporary Arabic fiction.

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Published
2026
Author
Elias Khoury