Narrative
The School of War
L'École de la guerre
Alexandre Najjar · 1999
Synopsis
Seven years after leaving Lebanon, the narrator returns to Beirut to see his family and friends again in a city pockmarked with bullet holes, and his past catches up with him. He was eight when the war broke out and twenty-three when the fighting ceased; in short chapters, he recalls a childhood and adolescence under the shells: snipers, shelters, the radio, power cuts and queues, but also holidays and the football World Cup.
Context
The book appeared in Paris from Balland in 1999, in a little over a hundred pages. A first-person narrative made of short chapters, it moves from emotion to humour and is meant as the testimony of a whole generation. La Table ronde reissued it in its pocket series La Petite Vermillon, with a preface by Richard Millet. Laurie Wilson translated it into English under the title The School of War, published in 2006 by Telegram with a preface by William Boyd.
Who it is for
A short narrative, in short chapters, that can be read in French as well as in English; it is available in paperback.
Prizes and reception
Also translated into Arabic, German, Italian, Romanian, Armenian and Swedish, and reissued in paperback in 2005 and again in 2017.
Sources for this page 5
The pages consulted to check this page.