Novelist Elias Khoury, 76, passed away on Sunday from sickness. He was one of Lebanon’s most well-known authors and a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause, according to people close to his family who spoke to AFP.
Khoury was born in 1948 in Beirut to a Christian family. He passed away in the capital of Lebanon after spending months in the hospital, according to the reports. Novelist Elias Khoury dies aged 76.
Over several decades, Khoury wrote for newspapers, taught literature, and edited a periodical associated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). And also produced a substantial body of work in Arabic that addressed the themes of collective memory, war, and exile.
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French, English, German, Hebrew, and Spanish are among the many international languages into which his writings were translated.
Notable Elias’s work
“Gate of the Sun,” one of his best-known books, chronicles the tale of Palestinian refugees who flew from their homes in 1948 amid the conflict that also marked the creation of Israel.
During the conflict, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flew from their homes and into exile. This event is known to them as the Nakba, which means calamity in Arabic.
Filmmaker Yousry Nasrallah, an Egyptian, adapted the novel for the screen. Novelist Elias Khoury dies aged 76
Khoury also wrote about the civil war in Lebanon, which lasted from 1975 to 1990, in books like “Yalo” and “Little Mountain”.
He wrote of his time spent bedridden in the hospital and living “a life filled with pain, which stops only to herald in more pain” in an article titled “A Year of Pain,” published on July 16.
He concluded by referring to the Israel-Hamas conflict in the beleaguered Gaza Strip, the Palestinian group’s October 7 raid and raging for more than nine months at that point.
“Despite being mercilessly bombarded for nearly a year, Gaza and Palestine continue to stand firm and unwavering. A role model who has taught me to appreciate life daily,” Khoury stated. Courtesy of AFP.
