Lamia Ziadé will present her book Ma Très Grande Mélancolie Arabe – Un siècle au Proche-Orient (P.O.L 2017)
This book features ruins and martyrs, remains, temples, shrines, gateways, as well as tombs, coffins, mausoleums, cemeteries, and epitaphs. There are legendary burials and mass graves. There are murdered resistance fighters, rebels shot dead, assassinated leaders, massacred children and hanged nationalists. There are prophets, gods, virgins, archangels; there are victims and murderers. There are also fortresses, basilicas, mosques, domes, minarets, watchtowers, barbed wire, empty shells of hotels, cinemas, camps and prisons. And prisoners, captives, hostages, torture victims. There are people who have been sentenced to death. There are militiamen and dictators, Fedayeen and Mujahedeen, a kamikaze nurse, a Miss Universe and a red prince, emirs, sultans, pashas, caliphs, patriarchs and poets.
There are the blasts of explosions. There is blood. There are sighs and tears, dust, smoke, broken glass, rubble, desolation, exile, agony, tragedy, mourning. Crowns, flowers, ribbons, songs, ululations. It is a danse macabre. Welcome to a century in the Middle East.
Once a month, as part of the process of building its library, the Fondation Thalie invites a special guest to come and talk about their relationship to books and to present their personal ideal library, which will then be added to the Foundation’s collection on-site, to create a shared library that is both timeless and very much in the spirit of the age.
Free admission