Writer Elias Khoury, one of the greatest Lebanese novelists of his generation and a fervent defender of the Palestinian cause, died Sunday at the age of 76, sources close to his family told AFP.
Elias Khoury died after a long illness in Beirut, where he had been hospitalized for many months.
His work, which addresses the 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 that recounts the tragedy of the Nakba, the forced departure of Palestinians from their lands during the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, was adapted for the cinema by the Egyptian director Yousri Nasrallah.
In addition to the Palestinian issue, which he addresses in many other novels, including the trilogy “Children of the Ghetto”, one of his last works, he also recounted the Lebanese civil war in several of his works such as “The Little Mountain” or “Yalo”.
Born in Beirut in 1948, he became involved in the Palestinian cause at a very early age. From 1975 to 1979, he was editor-in-chief of the journal Les affaires palestiniennes, collaborating with the great poet Mahmoud Darwich.
He was also 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-Nahar.
Elias Khoury has taught at several universities, including Columbia in the United States.
He continued to write until his last breath, despite his hospitalization and suffering.
In an article written from his hospital bed in July, titled “A Year of Pain,” he said: “Gaza and Palestine have been pounded savagely for almost a year and are resisting (…) it is a model; it teaches me every day to love life.”
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