Elias Khoury - Literary Works

Literary Works

Elias Khoury's first novel was An 'ilaqat al-da'ira, 1975. It was followed in 1977 by the highly successful The Little Mountain, set during the Lebanese civil war, which Khoury initially saw as a catalyst for progressive change. Other well-known works include The Journey of Little Gandhi, about a rural immigrant to Beirut who lives through the events of the civil war, and Gate of the Sun, 2000. An epic re-telling of the life of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon since the Nakba of 1948, Gate of the Sun also subtly addresses the ideas of memory, truth and story-telling. It has been made into a film by Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah.

Interviewed for the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot after the appearance of the Hebrew translation of the novel, Khouri remarked:

...when I was working on this book, I discovered that the “other” is the mirror of the "I." And given that I am writing about half a century of Palestinian experience, it is impossible to read this experience otherwise than in the mirror of the Israeli “other.” Therefore, when I was writing this novel, I put a lot of effort into trying to take apart not only the Palestinian stereotype but also the Israeli stereotype as it appears in Arab literature and especially in the Palestinian literature of Ghassan Kanafani, for example, or even of Emil Habibi. The Israeli is not only the policeman or the occupier, he is the "other," who also has a human experience, and we need to read this experience. Our reading of their experience is a mirror to our reading of the Palestinian experience.

Khoury's novel, Yalo, was controversial as it depicted a former militiaman accused of crimes during the civil war and portrayed the use of torture in the Lebanese judicial system.

Khoury's novels are notable for their complex approach to both political themes and more fundamental questions of human behaviour. His narrative technique often involves an interior monologue, at times approaching a stream of consciousness. In recent works he has tended to use a considerable element of colloquial Arabic, although the language of his novels remains primarily Modern Standard Arabic, which is also called Fusha. This use of dialect forms adds to the credibility and immediacy of the narratorial voice. While use of dialect in dialogue is relatively common in modern Arabic literature (for example, in the work of Yusuf Idris), Khoury introduces it into the main narrative, an unusual step although one clearly associated with the narrative technique of his works.

Elias Khoury's works have been translated into English, French, German, Hebrew, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish and Dutch.