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

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

written by Lebanese critic and writer

Jabbour Douaihy Jabbour Douaihy (; 1949 – 23 June 2021) was a critically-acclaimed Lebanese writer, translator, and professor of literature. His novels were nominated four times for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, and he has also published transl ...

. 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 A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...

for the 2008

International Prize for Arabic Fiction The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) (), also known as "the Arabic Booker", is regarded as the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab world. Its aim is to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing ...

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

for the 2008 Booker International Prize for Arabic Fiction. Paula Haydar's English translation of the new earned her a second place finish in the 2014 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize. 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 the German Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations in order to promote intercultural dialogue between the Western and Islam ...

, 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 ''The New Arab'' or ''Al-Araby Al-Jadeed'' () is a London-based pan-Arab news outlet owned by Qatari company Fadaat Media. It launched an Arabic-language website in March 2014 and an Arabic language daily newspaper in September 2014. The Engli ...

'' 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 businesspeople, executives and diplomats. At least as ...

'' 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

{{Authority control 2006 novels 21st-century Arabic-language books Lebanese novels