All She Lost

November 15, 2023
A Lebanese journalist interviews the nation's women about the impact of a deadly, unexplained explosion in Beirut. On Aug. 4, 2020, a warehouse storing ammonium nitrate caught fire and exploded in Beirut's port, killing at least 220 people and injuring 6,000, including many foreign nationals. The disaster not only occurred in the middle of the pandemic, but also during an unprecedented economic crisis that spurred nationwide protests against Lebanon's wealthy ruling class. Mawad, a Paris-based journalist, mother, and relative of an assassinated Lebanese president, began reporting stories that often focused on the "psychological toll of the blast." Most of the author's interviewees were women. "I began putting together survivors' stories, particularly from women, although that was never a deliberate choice at the outset," she writes. "Many of these women lost everything that day: the most precious people in their lives, their physical and mental health, their homes and livelihoods, their ability to be happy and to feel in any way secure." Mawad intersperses a collection of these interviews with historical context and her emotional reactions to hearing the women's words. The author includes conversations with a variety of people, including nurses, doctors, Syrian refugees, and at least one former celebrity. Toward the end, Mawad describes her decision to move with her daughter to Paris, stating that she was escaping "an abusive relationship with my country," which she classifies as a "failed state." At its best, the book is deeply researched and profoundly moving. At times, the author's descriptions of her personal reactions divert attention from the women's powerful stories. Likewise, her rage about her country's failures feels more suited to memoir than reporting. The result is a book that, despite many moments of literary merit, suffers from a lack of cohesion. A well-curated but disjointed collection of post-disaster Lebanese female voices.

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November 27, 2023
Journalist Mawad debuts with a nuanced and compassionate account of the deadly explosion on Aug. 4, 2020, in her native Beirut as recalled through the eyes of local women. During the Covid-19 pandemic, as Lebanon faced “a collapsed currency, soaring inflation and growing economic uncertainty,” a cache of ammonium nitrate (an explosive fertilizer) stored in the Port of Beirut ignited for unknown reasons, killing 221 and injuring thousands. Delving into Lebanon’s past, Mawad describes a country in turmoil that was under Ottoman rule for centuries, then given as “a gift to France” following WWI, before it achieved statehood in 1949. Now serving as the base for the militant Hezbollah Shia party, Lebanon, in Mawad’s telling, is a place where women are treated as “second class citizens” due to the “patriarchy and discriminatory religious laws,” a government-sanctioned slave labor scheme, and widely prevalent domestic abuse. As recent conditions deteriorated, “from corruption to human rights abuses and political paralysis, from war to sectarian violence,” Mawad and many of the women she profiles immigrated to France. She recreates a vivid scene of horror—with many unanswered questions about the explosion—that serves as a window onto the country’s past and future. The result is a heart-wrenching portrait of endurance and perseverance.