Samir El-Youssef – författare

After 17 years, the narrator and his friend, Ali, meet at Heathrow andslowly remember their past in a Palestinian camp in Lebanon. Their memories are concentrated on one fatal night when they were with two other friends for the last time, before tragedy struck. But for the narrator, a personal tragedy had occurred much earlier¿Like many other Palestinians, both Ali and the narrator had to leave Lebanon in the mid-1980s, when it became a battleground for local armies - Ali to America, the narrator to London.But this is not just a story about suffering, it is also about absurd politicsand violence - about a world where tragedy and comedy co-exist. A poignant story that lingers long after one has finished it.

Meeting a friend after many years'' separation, the narrator wonders whether the events they both lived through in Lebanon really took place. Time and distance give a sense of unreality but when the narrator and Ali meet at Heathrow Airport, after seventeen years, the past slowly begins to unfold.Like so many other Palestinians who were born in the Lebanon, they had to leave in the mid-1980s, when it became a battlefield for different militias and armies – Lebanese, Palestinian, Israeli and Syrian. Ali leaves for America and, two years later, the narrator leaves for London.Their memories are concentrated on one fatal night when they and two other friends are together for the last time, before tragedy strikes. But for the narrator, a personal tragedy had struck much earlier, one which he would never forget and could not share.