"Magical...Lamia Ziadé tells the story of the explosion as
she experienced it: from afar but in the heart. A book of love,
mourning and anger"-- Elle
On
the evening of August 4, 2020, an explosion tore through Beirut,
leaving nearly 200 people dead, 6,000 injured, and 300,000 homeless.
The blast was caused by storing thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate
alongside a stash of fireworks--a deadly arrangement about which the
government had known but done nothing.
For
six months straight, French Lebanese author and artist Lamia Ziadé
wrote, illustrated, and recorded every new piece of information,
every photograph of the wreckage or the wounded. In My
Port of Beirut, Ziadé
weaves together the play-by-play of the tragedy and the history of
Lebanon with her own personal stories and her participation in the
2019 protests against state corruption, laying out the historical and
political background that made such a catastrophe possible and,
perhaps, inevitable.
Lamia
Ziadé is a Lebanese author, illustrator, and visual artist. Born in
Beirut in 1968 and raised during the Lebanese Civil War, she moved to
Paris at 18 to study graphic arts. She then worked as a designer for
Jean-Paul Gaultier, exhibited her art in numerous galleries
internationally, and went on to publish several illustrated books,
including Ma très grande mélancolie arabe,
which won the Prix France-Liban, Ô nuit, ô mes yeux
and Bye bye Babylone.
