Song for the Missing

Praise for Song for the Missing

"Lebanese German author Jarawan (The Storyteller) movingly evokes life in Lebanon in his affecting and complex latest. It’s 2011, the year of the Arab Spring, and narrator Amin recalls Beirut before the civil war, when it “meant sunshine, freedom, joie de vivre!”—but those recollections are soon subsumed by his searing depiction of the 2006 bombing of Beirut by Syrian-backed forces. This is a gripping, human look at a tragedy that still haunts an entire nation."—Publishers Weekly

“In a 2006 Lebanon haunted by the ghosts of the civil war and threatened by present-day bombs, a young man wanders a fractured landscape and wonders what happened to his childhood friend, Jafar, with whom he upsold trinkets embellished by tall tailed origin stories. Mysterious and moving, Song for the Missing is a quietly brutal noir that dishes out equal parts empathy and scorn for humanity and its many destructions.”—Molly Odintz, CrimeReads

"In this work of historical fiction, a man named Amin in Lebanon decides to write down his memories and story. He returned to Lebanon from Germany with his grandmother Yara when he was just a teen, and tried to put together the puzzle of what happened to their country in the interim — the thousands of missing people, the debris of conflict. As he forges a friendship with a boy named Jafar, who shows him around the city of Beirut, he realizes that the world he grew up in was vastly different from the one being formed in his homeland while he was away. The book digs into memory, history, displacement, and uncertainty." —Book Riot

“There’s a well-crafted balance to Jarawan’s approach, the dropping of bombs and corruption leavened by the poignant and thoughtful depiction of a family trying to navigate a way through the trauma. Elisabeth Lauffer’s translation is moving yet urgent.”— The Observer

“A love letter to Lebanon and its people—a deft, sensitive book that steers clear of ‘oriental’ clichés, with a poetic narrative voice.” —DANIEL SPECK, screenwriter

“It’s a family story, and it’s also a story of identity. It is a story of the entanglements of the Middle East and the Europeans and it is also—I think—a coming-of-age story.” —Bayern 2 “Diwan: Das Büchermagazin”

“A story that gets under your skin and shows that our lives are always the sum of everything that happened to the previous generations.” —Münchner Merkur

“A highly poetic book in an equally poetic language. You literally immerse yourself in such an oriental world full of stories and atmospheres.” —Deutschlandfunk Kultur “Lesart”

“Pierre Jarawan once again proves to be a magician of language. He writes in a clear, poetic language that is deeply moving and impresses with enchanting and atmospheric images of Lebanon’s cities. In a virtuoso way, Jarawan links the events of the Middle East, the civil war, and the Arab Spring with the life of the narrator—a story of Lebanon you won't forget.” —Freie Presse

“Despite the lightness of the novel, which can also be read as a coming-of-age, love, friendship, and family story, it is a critical examination of Lebanon. Jarawan’s narration retains the lightness he displayed in his debut, which has been translated into many languages.” —Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Pierre Jarawan speaks confidently and warmly of the wounds of the war, repressed trauma, and the attitude towards life of a generation with limited hope. A wonderfully poetic—but also political—novel about Lebanon. Absolutely recommended.” —Abendzeitung München

“A new Jarawan as we love him: sensitive, exciting, and tightly linked to the eventful history of the Middle East.” —Rheinischer Spiegel Online

“Pierre Jarawan lets Lebanon come alive over decades in a sensual and factual manner, but also the friends Amin and Jafar, their thoughts and feelings, their strength, their abysses." —Welt am Sonntag

“Jarawan manages to maintain the high level of his first book. With his typical passion for telling stories, the fun of wonderfully poetic linguistic images that manage to bring smells and tastes to life, and a gripping and touching story, he again manages to bring Lebanon closer to us historically, politically, and emotionally.” —Galore Literatur

“This moving novel is dedicated to 17,000 people who disappeared without a trace during 15 years of civil war. But Jarawan also portrays the beauty and poetry of the country and recalls the great tradition of the Hakawati, the Arab storytellers.” —Madame

“A gripping story that touches the central trauma of today’s Lebanon.” —Der Standard

“Such a touching and gripping book!” —SRF2 Kultur “Kontext”

“With the way Jarawan tells his story, he has created a little masterpiece.” —Ö1 “Ex libris”

“Jarawan’s second novel imparts a great deal of geopolitical and contemporary historical knowledge, stimulates reflection on exile and art—and translates these complex topics into interwoven, twisting stories around a convincing ensemble of characters in a vivid and confident manner. A book that is worth reading repeatedly.” —LiteraturSeiten München

“You could say: ‘Someone is repeating his recipe for success.’ In fact, Song for the Missing is spun even more finely—a book that goes much further beyond the family scenario.” —Bayern 2 “radioTexte: Das offene Buch”

“The reader strolls and wanders through strange worlds of fragrant, intense street scenes full of sweet melancholy, biting fear, and teasing irony, where the imagination and grit of the shrewd Beirut youth are as at home as the memories of the countless people who turned into ‘the missing,’ when they disappeared forever.” —Stadtkind

“The new novel by Pierre Jarawan: sensitive, exciting, and virtuoso linked to the dramatic history of the Middle East.” —Erlesen

Praise for The Storyteller

“Jarawan’s style is pacy and unadorned, with a narrative design that urges you on.” —The Observer

“The characters search for a sort of Holy Grail, a mystical solution to complicated problems, and they don’t find it.” —Asymptote Journal

“Hands-down one of the best books I’ve read so far this year.” —From Cover to Cover

“Deserves to be huge.” —Ignoring Life Blog

“Expansive and engaging.” —David’s Book World

“His masterful debut successfully interweaves historical events with a suspense-filled investigation of one family’s fate in a novel that deeply moves its readers.” —New Books in German

“In a sweeping style reminiscent of oriental storytelling, Jarawan tells of escape, migration, and a family torn between two cultures. His debut succeeds in bringing foreign culture into focus and awakens in the reader a fascination with the Land of the Cedars.” —Kulturtipp

“This new literary voice is particularly melodious and memorable. The Storyteller is an elegantly and unobtrusively narrated novel that shows us what is behind and beyond the narrow stuffy rooms that we call ‘our world,’ our Europe, our West. With this novel, the doors open to a thousand other beautiful, incomprehensible worlds.” —ALEXANDER SOLLOCH, NDR Culture New Books

“This book is a masterwork—a debut of great class.” —Booklover & Dreamcatcher

“Pierre wanted to use the mystery of the plot to make sure the book was read, while capturing all the different nuances of Lebanese politics and society from the start of the civil war. And he succeeded.” —Veja (Brazil)

“Pierre Jarawan, a young German author of Lebanese origin, displays with this debut novel an ample and romantic work of bluffing mastery, pulling the strings of his story one after another, taking us where we least expect, entertaining doubt until the last pages, and sprinkling his novel with characters of a strong presence.” —booksmoodsandmore.com

“Jarawan’s adeptness in the storytelling genre mixed with his knowledge of the Lebanese civil war creates a work that is both intensely lyrical and a power reflection on an important piece of recent history. This book has everything you could want: love, loss, mystery, history, and the wisdom gained from an insightful dive into very complex political and religious history.” —HANNAH, Malaprop’s Bookstore, USA

“In The Storyteller, German-Lebanese author Pierre Jarawan has created a work of art that explores the importance of family and nationality in the creation of an identity. Jarawan fills the book with stories of the Lebanese civil war, teaching the history of the country and the event without making it feel like you are learning anything or reading a history book. Samir, the main character, is incredibly relatable in his search for understanding of himself even though his circumstances are not something even close to anything I have experienced. Jarawan creates a cast of characters in which I cared about each and every one of them, despite their faults. A definite must-read.” —PORTIA TURNER, The Book Cellar, USA

“Wow. Just wow. I spent my last two years of high school in Beirut and then was there as a college student on summer break in 1975 when the civil war broke out. Not only does this novel capture all the things about Lebanon that made me and my fellow American Community School students fall in love with the place, but the story weaves in all of the disparate issues that helped foment the crisis and all the devastation—not only of buildings, but of families and communities—that followed. It’s a story reminiscent of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, and yet it also probes the growing phenomenon of ‘third culture’ kids ... something very much on the increase as more and more parts of the world cough up war refugees. I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It will stay with you long after you turn the last page.” —TANYA MILLS, The Book Bungalow, USA

“Samir journeys from the safety of the new life his family has built in Germany to Lebanon to find his father, his only clues the stories his father told him and an old photograph, which lead him through history into the heart of Lebanon’s civil war. I was immediately drawn into the mesmerizing descriptions in this novel, which opened worlds to me that had never been presented so vividly before. The combination of Pierre Jarawan’s storytelling and Rachel McNicholl and Sinéad Crowe’s translation creates a powerful, moving, beautiful narrative.” —ANNA EKLUND, University Bookstore, USA

“Beginnings and endings cycle through Pierre Jarawan’s tightly interlaced story, which never tries to separate personal lives from the larger world in which the characters are living. Because they cannot be. It is life. He creates a sense of urgency. The desire to unravel a central mystery seems overwhelming, yet there are pockets of space throughout as details of the character’s life unfold and episodes unwind before the road twists and turns once more.” —CONNIE GRIFFIN, Bookworks, USA

“Lyrical prose, characters that claim your empathy, and an intriguing plot prove Pierre Jarawan is a gifted storyteller. Samir’s family fled war-torn Lebanon for a safer life in Germany. His father, Brahim, would tell stories of his homeland, stories that connected young Samir to a past he does not know. Memories of his father are the stories he told, stories of yearning set in a land that holds their history, a land they left for new lives in Germany. Brahim is an affectionate father, a cheerful man who was always up for a party, a song, the company of friends or strangers. Sadness would burden him, memories a catalyst for despair. Samir adores his father, so deeply that when Brahim disappears, Samir follows to the only destination he can conceive, Lebanon. It is a dangerous journey to a land he knows only through his father’s stories, there he bears the cost of discovering the secrets of the past. A beautifully written saga of a troubled land.” —DEON STONEHOUSE, Sunriver Books, USA

“I just picked up the galley of The Storyteller and was greeted by such an evocative first chapter—a father installing a satellite dish, Lebanese food, neighbors—that now I have to read the whole book. And it does not disappoint!” —MARY COTTON, Newtonville Books, USA

<>“The Storyteller is truly a work of art, one of those masterful books that from the moment you start reading it you begin to live two lives, moving back and forth between your own reality and Samir’s story. And then, somewhere around the middle of the book, you become so invested in Samir you decide to transcend the triviality of your own life events to be a part of Samir’s journey, a journey so poignant that it then becomes a part of you. It was an absolute honor to read an early review copy. I loved every page of this book.” —SHONEE MIRCHANDANI, Bookazine, Hong Kong

“Reading those descriptive words, I felt myself in Lebanon. Jarawan has the ability to paint you a picture with his expressive words and take you where you’ve never been. A true depiction of culture and identity. A story about history, family and the secrets that bind them. The Storyteller is a beautifully written novel that you do not want to miss.” —TAMAR KASSABIAN, Virgin Megastore, Egypt

“A lovely—and perfectly titled—book, the storytelling is WONDERFUL! The Storyteller follows a son in search of his father and explores cultural identity and displacement, but is ultimately a story about family secrets, love, and friendship. Jarawan is a German-Lebanese author and this book was a bestseller in Germany for months. Only 100 pages in but I love it!” —Drake The Bookshop, UK

“The Storyteller seamlessly integrates history and human reality into a beautiful fictional narrative. The author takes us on a journey with Samir, a Lebanese boy born a refugee in Germany. Through the immersive stories of his father about the beautiful country of Lebanon, its damaged history and its proud cedar trees, Samir is constantly reminded of his roots, and so his cultural identity crisis is alleviated. It accounts for what it feels like for humans living in diaspora to search for love and belonging in both their country of residence and country of origin. Above all, it illustrates a relationship bond that is rarely accounted for—a strong and loving relationship between a father and a son.” —KHADIJA LAWAL, Virgin Megastore MENA, United Arab Emirates

“A great personal story intertwined with the 1982 Lebanon war. It’s story of love, religion, race, and politics. A surprising ending after a fast-paced investigation into one’s roots.” —FRANK, Bluefountain, China

“As if in a fairy tale, you are visiting a foreign country, smelling the cedar trees and learning about Lebanon’s history in this deeply touching story. You will be in the world of Samir from beginning to end. You will be unable to leave Samir and the other colorful characters, as you travel to the land in which the cedars whisper of a different, better world.” —AYŞEN BOYLU, Homer Books, Turkey

“The Storyteller is one of those rare novels that elegantly interweaves history, culture, religion, identity and family together in a heartbreaking and fascinating story of a young man’s search for his father in Lebanon. But also a search for his own identity, being torn between his Lebanese roots and the Germany that welcomed Samir and his family, when the war broke out in Lebanon. A relevant story so many people can relate to. I love the fables Pierre Jarawan uses to tell the story, but also the suspense he builds up through the novel. Pierre Jarawan is a true storyteller!” —KRISTINA HAUBERG, Politiken, Denmark