Corriere di notte

Spanning the distance between Beirut and Paris, Barakat’s bold contemporary novel follows a group of Arab travelers as they flee toward the West, chasing the promise of a fresh start. Their paths cross at the airport, but the refuge they seek proves to be a fragile illusion. Through a series of intercepted "final letters"—from a fugitive jailer to a young man seeking his father’s acceptance—these characters reveal a raw, choral portrait of a society grappling with violence, identity, and the desperate hope of starting over.

When these unsent messages fall into the hands of a lone postman, they find a final, unexpected witness. In a world where words often feel insufficient and everything seems on the brink of collapse, his response becomes a powerful testament to human connection. This is a haunting and incredibly timely exploration of the "Western mirage" and the enduring struggle to be heard in a fractured world.

Author: Hoda Barakat (هُدَى بَرَكَات)

She is a Lebanese writer, journalist, and translator. She studied French Literature in Beirut, graduating in 1975. She worked as a teacher, translator, and journalist before moving to Paris in 1989 due to the Lebanese Civil War, where she still resides today.

She rose to prominence with her novel The Stone of Laughter (1990). In 2000, she was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature for The Tiller of Waters (1998), and in 2018, she received the prestigious Al Owais Prize. She was also a finalist for the International Man Booker Prize in 2015. Her other notable works include The Disciples of Passion (1993) and Sayyidi wa Habibi (My Master and My Lover, 2004). Her memoir, Letters from a Stranger, won the Amalfi Coast International Biennale Award in 2008. Her books have been translated into 15 languages.