Her novel Beirut Nightmares tells the story of a woman who is holed up in her house at the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil war.
Each episode, we take an in-depth look at a lesser-known literary text and attempt to give it the critical attention it deserves: books that are criminally overlooked, have struggled to reach an anglophone audience, or are just downright odd. Abstract Ghada Samman is a Syrian writer who lived in Beirut. Sherds Podcast is a journey through the outskirts of literary history. Over the course of the programme, we discuss the strange mixture of realistic depictions of war and fantastical nightmares, boredom as a literary theme, and the clash between ideology and aesthetics within the novel. The horror of the waking world soon finds its way into the dreamscape where disembodied limbs roam the flaming streets, and mannequins come to life. With the conflict raging outside, and snipers on every corner, she is unable to leave her flat. Set at the height of the Lebanese Civil War, this autobiographical novel concerns two weeks in the life of a journalist and writer living at the heart of the warzone.
Ghada Samman’s ‘Beirut Nightmares’ was originally published in Arabic in 1976.
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