The writer Elias Khoury, one of the greatest Lebanese novelists of his generation and a fervent defender of the Palestinian cause, died on Sunday at the age of 76, sources close to his family told Agence France-Presse, after a long illness, in Beirut, where he had been hospitalized for many months.
His work, which addresses themes of memory, war and exile, has been translated into numerous languages, including French, English, German, Hebrew and Spanish. One of his best-known novels, The Gate of the Sun (Actes sud, 2002), an epic poem that tells the tragedy of the Nakba, the forced exodus of Palestinians from their lands during the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, was adapted for film by Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah.
In addition to the Palestinian issue, which he addresses in many other novels, including the trilogy Children of the ghettoOne of his last works, he also recounted the Lebanese civil war in several of his texts such as The little mountain EITHER Yalo.
Born in Beirut in 1948, he became involved in the Palestinian cause at an early age. From 1975 to 1979 he was editor-in-chief of the magazine Palestinian Affairscollaborating with the great poet Mahmoud Darwich. He was also the editorial director of the cultural section of the Lebanese daily. As-Safir and editor-in-chief of the cultural supplement of the Lebanese daily An NaharElias Khoury has taught at several universities, including Columbia University in the United States.
