My Great Arab Melancholy

‘A stunningly stylish, breathtakingly evocative tribute in words and art to the cosmopolitan Levant that exists in defiance of war and empire. I treasure my copy.’

– Molly Crabapple, artist and author of ‘Brothers of the Gun: A Memoir of the Syrian War’

’… a personal, impassioned account … evocative, personal texts with illustrations whose bold, colorful style seems to hark back to hand-painted movie posters’

– ‘The New York Review’

‘Lamia Ziade works as an alchemist’

– ‘Elle’

‘Extraordinary’

– ‘Ms Magazine’

Lamia Ziadé is a Lebanese author, illustrator and visual artist. Born in Beirut in 1968 and raised during the Lebanese Civil War, she moved to Paris at 18 to study graphic arts. She then worked as a designer for Jean-Paul Gaultier, exhibited her art in numerous galleries internationally, and went on to publish several illustrated books, including My Port of Beirut, Ma très grande mélancolie arabe which won the Prix France-Liban, Ô nuit, ô mes yeux and Bye bye Babylone.

Emma Ramadan is an educator and literary translator from French. She is the recipient of the PEN Translation Prize, the Albertine Prize, two NEA Fellowships, and a Fulbright. Her translations include A Country for Dying by Abdellah Taïa, Zabor, or the Psalms by Kamel Daoud, Panics by Barbara Molinard, and The Easy Life by Marguerite Duras.