The Locust and the Bird
SynopsisPlot
Married at a young age against her will, Kamila soon fell head-over-heels in love with another man—and was thus forced to choose between her children and her lover. As the narrative unfolds through the years—from the bazaars, cinemas, and apartments of 1930s Beirut to its war-torn streets decades later—we follow this passionate woman as she survives the tragedies and celebrates the triumphs of a life lived to the very fullest.
Story
About this book
Hanan al-Shaykh, a Lebanese novelist, wrote this book as a biographical portrait of her mother, Kamila. Married off at a young age without her consent, Kamila later fell in love with another man, a situation that placed her in an impossible position: she would have to choose between her children and the person she loved. The story follows the consequences of that choice across decades of life in Lebanon.
The setting stretches from 1930s Beirut, with its bazaars, cinemas, and apartment blocks, through to the later decades when the city was reshaped by conflict. Al-Shaykh reconstructs her mother's world using Kamila's own voice and memories, turning a family story into a detailed account of one woman's experience within a society that offered her few sanctioned paths. The book sits between memoir and biography, shaped by a daughter who is also a trained fiction writer.
Kamila's story touches on forced marriage, personal independence, motherhood, and the cost of breaking with social expectations in mid-twentieth-century Lebanon. The narrative moves through periods of both ordinary domestic life and wider upheaval in Beirut, grounding personal decisions in the changing landscape of the city.
