Preserving food and culture the Lebanese way. 

The very best memories connecting us to time and place are often stimulated by the tastes and smells of our childhood. Freshly-baked bread, hot from the oven, sweet homemade jam dribbling down our chins, or the burst of flavor in each dried grape- these memories bring a smile to our faces even as they call to mind the people who made them possible. Do you remember working alongside your grandmother as she lovingly preserved garden-fresh foods to set back for the winter? You watched Jiddo (grandfather) patiently prepare his arak, but could you reproduce his efforts from memory? Are you lucky enough that they kept written records of recipes gleaned from family history and years of experience? If so, count yourself among the very fortunate minority. The reality for many of us is that we no longer enjoy such a strong connection to our culinary roots. As much as we might wish the contrary, the beauty and simplicity of home-preserved pantry items, the mouneh, taken for granted during our childhood, often seems a lifetime away.

In Barbara Abdeni Massaad's book, Mouneh: Preserving Foods for the Lebanese Pantry, we've been thrown a lifeline to a piece of our cultural and culinary identity. So many things we would love to recreate for our own families become possible within these pages, thanks to the author's diligent research, stunning photography, simply presented instructions and delightful stories.

Painter and poet, immigrant, rebel, global citizen, author of the beloved classic, The Prophet.

Kahlil Gibran: Beyond Borders tells the inspiring saga of the artist's life and creative vision Gibran's story is one of overcoming barriers faced by many immigrants at the turn of the twentieth century - and still today.

From his childhood and spiritual roots in Mount Lebanon to the city wilderness of urban America; from his apprenticeships in the creative circles of Boston, Beirut, Paris, and New York to his art and activism for "Greater Syria"; and from his friendships and loves to his emergence during the populist waves of the early 1900s as a people's poe, Gibran crafted an art embracing a universal message that has become treasured in over forty languages. Exiled between the worlds and conflicts of the Middle East and the West, Gibran defied boundaries to assert a vision of an underlying humanity and faith that people share.

This colorful, richly illustrated biography draws on a lifetime of dedicated, persistent research to bring Gibran's compelling story into our time. It will make obsolete all previous accounts and will become the definitive study of this extraordinary and well-loved writer.

A thrilling, yet intimate, view of the 440 km trail that runs through the remote and majestic Lebanese mountains.

Hana El-Hibri and her fellow hikers were the first to walk the length of Lebanon from north to south, and her up-close account of the month-long journey is accompanied by Norbert Schiller's superb photos, capturing the region's diverse wildlife, its stunning scenery and the colorful characters that live there.

A Million Steps gives us snapshots of a Lebanon that is rarely seen and of an adventure of discovery, beauty and companionship to be treasured by all who value Lebanon's rich rural heritage. A fabulous gift book!

A moving novel about Lebanon shortlisted for the International Prize for Arab Fiction.

One of Lebanon's leading writers recreates a village forever transformed by the massacre of one Christian community by another, and its impact on a mother and her long-estranged son.

On June 16, 1957, a shoot-out in a village church in northern Lebanon leaves two dozen people dead. In the aftermath of the massacre, the town is divided in two: the Al-Ramis in the north and their rivals, the Al-Semaanis, in the south. But lives once so closely intertwined cannot easily be divided. Neighbors turn into enemies, and husbands and wives are forced to choose between loyalty to each other and loyalty to their clan.

Drawing on an actual killing that took place in his home town, Douaihy reconstructs that June day from the viewpoints of people who witnessed the killings or whose lives were forever altered by them. A young girl overhears her father lending his gun to his cousins but refusing to accompany them to the church. A school boy walks past the dead bodies, laid out in the town square on beds brought out from the houses. A baker, whose shop is trapped on the wrong side of the line, hopes the women who buy his bread will protect him.

At the center of Douaihy's masterful novel is Eliyya, who, twenty years after emigrating to the US, returns to the village to learn about the father who was shot through the heart in the massacre: the father he never knew. But can the village, alive with the ghosts of his childhood, really provide Eliyya answers to questions he canÍt even articulate?

With an incredible eye for detail, Douaihy describes that fateful Sunday when rain poured from the sky and the traditions and affections of village life were consumed by violence and revenge.

Acclaimed novel with compelling treatment of gender roles, and the effects of civil war.

Najwa Barakat's Oh, Salaam! (Yaa Salaam!, Arabic, 1999) tells the story of three friends whose lives are transformed by their participation in the inhuman civil war of some unnamed Arab country- and by their relationship with the novel's anti-heroine, Salaam. Two of the friends live to see the arrival of peace, but they struggle to make a life for themselves in a society that has no need for former militiamen. Meanwhile, the death of the third, Salaam's fiance, remains a mystery until the closing pages of the novel. Some scenes recall No Exit as the three main characters use and torment each other. In others, their cruelty and coarse behavior is reminiscent of the antisocial counterculture of Clockwork Orange. Initially repulsed, the reader is drawn to discover whether any of the characters will succeed in finding love, making it rich, or getting out of the country alive.

The fast-reading plot is shocking throughout, yet it generates a compelling fascination to observe the ultimate consequences of violence and sexual exploitation. The depictions of civil war, torture, oppressive gender roles, and sexual exploitation are challenging to read, but unfortunately they remain very relevant.

Oh, Salaam! has been translated into Italian and French. Both the original and the translations alike have received the praise of critics for the novel's compelling treatment of antisocial characters, gender roles, and the effects of civil war.