Rabee Jaber was born in Beirut in 1972. He studied Physics at the American University of Beirut (AUB). He is a journalist and the editor of the weekly cultural supplement of al-Hayat daily newspaper. As a writer, he has 18 novels to his credit. In 2009 some of his work was included in the anthology Beirut39, published when Beirut became World Book Capital. The anthology featured the works of 39 of the best authors under the age of 40 in the Arab World. He was nominated twice for the Arabic Booker Prize (IPAF), and he received the prize in 2012 for The Druze of Belgrade, a historical novel set in Mount Lebanon during the civil war of the 1860s. It was translated into more than 10 languages.
Rabee Jaber
Rabee Jaber
/
ربيع جابر
Selected bibliography
- أميركا, Amerika, Al Markaz Al thaqafi Al Arabi and Dar Al Adab, Lebanon, 2009. French translation: Amerika, Gallimard, 2013, trans. by Simon Corthay and Charlotte Wolliez; Italian translation: Come fili di seta, Feltrinelli, 2011
- الاعترافات, Confessions, Dar Al Adab, Lebanon, 2008. English translation: Confessions, New Directions, USA, 2016, trans. by Kareem James Abu-Zeid; French translation: Confessions, Gallimard, 2021, trans. by Simon Corthay
- تقرير ميليس, The Mehlis Report, Dar Al Adab, Lebanon, 2006. English translation: The Mehlis Report, New Direction, USA, 2013, trans. by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
- بيريتوس: مدينة تحت الأرض, Berytus: A City Under the Earth, Dar Al Adab, Lebanon, 2005. French translation: Berytus, une ville sous tere, Gallimard, 2009, trans. by Simon Corthay
Press
L’écrivain libanais livre une lancinante parabole, sans pathos, ni sentimentalisme, de l’amnésie de la guerre civile in Le Monde, May 2021 (in French)
Remade by Terror by The New York Times, May 2016
“Come fili di seta”, quando dal Libano arriva la grande letteratura internazionale e una lezione di vita in Italian in Editoriaba, February 2013
The novel evokes this unsettled period with frightening precision. It reads like a historical novel that happens to be about the very recent past in The New York Review, 2005
Prizes and awards
- Winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction with The Druze of Belgrade in 2012
- Shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction with America in 2010
- Longlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction with The birds of the Holiday Inn in 2013
Book(s) featured on this site
Reviewed by Elisabetta Bartuli