La puerta del sol

Gate of the Sun: Bab al-Shams is the first magnum opus of the Palestinian saga. Through the passing of the beloved midwife of the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, the reader enters a world of displacement, fear, and tenuous hope. A realigned 1001 Nights, a makeshift doctor tells stories to his comatose friend in an attempt to keep him alive. His patient, Yunes, is also from Galilee, where he left Nahla, the love of his life. The novel unfolds at his bedside through the storyteller's intimate and haunting flights of memory. Khoury humanizes the complex Palestinian and Israeli struggle for us, shedding light on the turbulent history with love and empathy. Khoury opens up a whole new territory, a place where "us" and "them" are inextricably entwined; he takes us on a vast odyssey of horror and love. Originally published in Beirut in 1998, the novel has been a sensation throughout the Arab world, in Israel, and throughout Europe. Winner of the Prize of Palestine in 2000 and Le Monde Diplomatique's Book of the Year in 2002.

Original edition: Dar Al Adab (Lebanon, 1998). Rights sold to: Andalus Press (Israel); Archipelago Books (USA); Harvill Press (UK); Einaudi (Italy); Actes Sud (France); Aschehoug (Norway); Klett Cotta (Germany); Ambo (Netherlands); Leopard Förlag (Sweden) and Record (Brazil).