These are the ruins of Beirut: the Ottoman Beirut, the Arab Beirut, the Roman Beirut, the Hellenic Beirut, the Phoenician Beirut. The Beirut today. Beirut: the word means well. In Beirut, a well reveals layer upon layer, generation after generation, of ruins.
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‘The place we come from, the place we call home, is the home of our suffering.’
Jamaica Kincaid talks about finding her way to writing.
‘Parents should not have to bury their children. I will come to you, she whispers.’
Fiction by Himali McInnes.
‘I will go elsewhere / and remember, recall where / I came from’
A poem by John Kinsella.
‘The immigrant’s dream – that he or she can make a better life for the children – becomes a kind of tragedy when it comes true.’
Pico Iyer and Caryl Phillips discuss migration, V. S. Naipaul and the meaning of home.
‘Just follow me, she had said, you do nothing but what I tell you to.’
An extract from Yiyun Li’s new novel.
