''June Rain'' (Arabic: مطر حزيران) is a 2006

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

written by Lebanese critic and writer Jabbour Douaihy. The novel was published in 2006 by Dar Al-Nahar for Publishing and Distribution by Dar Al-Saqi’s in London. It has been translated to French, Italian, German, and English. The book was also shortlisted for the 2008

International Prize for Arabic Fiction The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) ( ar, الجائزة العالمية للرواية العربية) is the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab world. Its aim is to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic ...

Description

The story begins with a massacre at a funeral in the village of Burj al-Hawa. Twenty-four people are killed and many others are wounded. The story follows a Lebanese man who returns home after 43 years to investigate his father's death. The novel begins on the afternoon after the massacre when children returned to the village from school. The villagers knew of the massacre, but they did not tell the children. The main character of the story is a man named Eliyya. His father was one of the people killed in the massacre at the church in his village, Burj Al-Hawa, Lebanon, on 16 June 1957. His mother wanted to protect him, so she took him to live with relatives in the United States while she continued living in Lebanon. In the United States Eliyya invented stories about his roots, but after 43 years away, he returned to Lebanon, where he searched for his identity. He tried to discover facts about the massacre and many people told him the facts from their own perspectives. The novel has been translated into different languages including, French, Italian, German, and English, and it was shortlisted for the 2008 Booker International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Paula Haydar Paula Haydar (born 1965) is an American academic and translator. She has a PhD in Comparative literature and an MFA in Literary translation. She won an Arkansas Arabic Translation Prize for her translation of Elias Khoury's ''The Kingdom of S ...

's English translation of the novel earned her a second place finish in the 2014

Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize The Banipal Prize, whose full name is the Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation, is an annual prize awarded to a translator (or translators) for the published English translation of a full-length literary work in the Ar ...

. The Beirut Daily Star also recognized the Haydar translation in a year-end book review list of the six Top Middle East Novels of 2014 in translation.

Reception

Reviewing the book for

Qantara.de Qantara.de (Classical Arabic: ', meaning "bridge") is an Internet portal in German, English, and Arabic, produced by Deutsche Welle in order to promote intercultural dialogue between the Western and Islamic worlds. The portal was founded on the ...

, Marcia Lynx Qualey wrote that ''June Rain'' was "both an important and a delightful book", but identified its flaw as being "a 'whodunit' without a 'who, preventing a satisfying conclusion. Ramona Wadi of '' The New Arab'' stated that the novel follows several futile trajectories of memory to no resolution, and lamented the use of an "unreliable narrator that seeks to withhold information as he pleases". Manal Shakir, writing for ''

Arab News ''Arab News'' is an English-language daily newspaper published in Saudi Arabia. It is published from Riyadh. The target audiences of the paper, which is published in broadsheet format, are businessmen, executives and diplomats. At least as of ...

'' said: "There is a humorous undertone to the characters, although the tragedy at the heart of the story lives on in them." Mona Zaki of ''Banipal'' called it rich, complex, beautifully written and "one of the most profound depictions of grief ... one of the most powerful novels on Lebanon."

References

{{reflist, refs= {{Cite web , title=جبور الدويهي {{! جائزة كتارا للرواية العربية , url=http://www.kataranovels.com/novelist/%d8%ac%d8%a8%d9%88%d8%b1-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%88%d9%8a%d9%87%d9%8a/ , access-date=2022-06-21 , website=جائزة كتارا للرواية العربية , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018024458/http://www.kataranovels.com/novelist/%d8%ac%d8%a8%d9%88%d8%b1-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%88%d9%8a%d9%87%d9%8a/ , archive-date=2016-10-18 , language=ar {{Cite web , title=حصاد 2006 في الأدب العربي {{! الجمل {{! , url=https://www.aljaml.com/node/11479 , access-date=2022-06-21 , website=الجمل , language=ar , archive-date=2022-06-25 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625040056/https://www.aljaml.com/node/11479 , url-status=live {{Cite web , date=2014-05-28 , title=صدور الطبعة الإنجليزية من رواية" مطر حزيران" لـ"جبور الدويهي" , url=https://www.albawabhnews.com/605174 , access-date=2022-06-21 , website=www.albawabhnews.com , archive-date=2015-09-25 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925054754/http://www.albawabhnews.com/605174 , url-status=live {{cite web , last1=Wadi , first1=Ramona , title=June Rain: A powerful portrait of identity and division in Lebanon , url=https://english.alaraby.co.uk/features/june-rain-powerful-portrait-identity-and-division , publisher=The New Arab , date=29 March 2020 , access-date=11 July 2022 {{cite news , last1=Lynx Qualey , first1=Marcia , title=A "whodunit" without the "who" , url=https://en.qantara.de/content/book-review-jabbour-douaihys-june-rain-a-whodunit-without-the-who , access-date=21 June 2022 , publisher=Qantara.de , date=17 October 2014 , archive-date=16 January 2022 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220116071030/https://en.qantara.de/content/book-review-jabbour-douaihys-june-rain-a-whodunit-without-the-who , url-status=live {{Cite web , title=Banipal Trust for Arab Literature – The Banipal Translation Prize – The 2014 Award , url=https://www.banipaltrust.org.uk/prize/award.cfm?y=2014 , access-date=2022-06-21 , website=www.banipaltrust.org.uk {{cite news , last1=Shakir , first1=Manal , title=Jabbour Douaihy's 'June Rain' depicts the aftermath of a tragedy , url=https://arab.news/zf6zk , access-date=21 June 2022 , publisher=Arab News , date=17 December 2019 , archive-date=25 June 2022 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625040207/https://www.arabnews.com/node/1600226/lifestyle , url-status=live {{cite news , title=Paula Haydar's 'June Rain' Translation Highly Commended by Prestigious Award , url=https://news.uark.edu/articles/26580/paula-haydar-s-june-rain-translation-highly-commended-by-prestigious-award , access-date=21 June 2022 , publisher=University of Arkansas , date=12 February 2015 , archive-date=3 December 2015 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151203013052/http://news.uark.edu/articles/26580/paula-haydar-s-june-rain-translation-highly-commended-by-prestigious-award , url-status=live {{cite news , last1=Zaki , first1=Mona , title=Book Reviews , url=https://www.banipal.co.uk/book_reviews/116/june-rain/ , access-date=22 June 2022 , publisher=Banipal , date=2022 , archive-date=22 June 2022 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220622041149/https://www.banipal.co.uk/book_reviews/116/june-rain/ , url-status=live {{Cite web , last=Hzayran , first=Matar , title=June rain {{! R A Y A {{! agency for Arabic literature , url=http://www.rayaagency.org/clients/douaihy-jabbour/june-rain/ , access-date=2022-06-24 , language=en-US , archive-date=2021-03-03 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303012751/http://www.rayaagency.org/clients/douaihy-jabbour/june-rain/ , url-status=live 2006 novels 21st-century Arabic books Lebanese novels