The initial shock is not known if it was more for her, Chiara Clausilanded from Rome at the airport of Beirut in 2016, or for them, the Lebanese, who saw a single woman arrive, a journalist who also speaks Arabic. The fact is that the Middle East correspondent of various Italian newspapers – including The newspaper e Panorama – in this city, a crossroads of history, culture, civil wars, flavors and smells light years away from us, he has lived there for over six years. And she fell in love with it so much that she dedicated an entire book-reportage to the capital of Lebanon: it’s called “Beirut goodbye”is published by “Editions Countries” and will be released on June 1st. In the meantime, however, the author will present it premiered at the Salone Off, in Turin, Saturday 21 May at 7 pm, at Villa Intrigo.
The preface is edited by Francesca Mannocchi, a war freelancer, who also knows the reality of the Middle East very well. «” Beirut au revoir “- writes Mannocchi – holds everything together. The love for smells, flavors, the charm of Lebanon, the agony for a country that changes as you turn the corner of the street and becomes the Lebanon in which half of the population lives below the poverty line. There are the hot days in Tripoli and the walks in downtown Beirut, there are the faces made indistinguishable by a search for ephemeral beauty, and the suffering of a very small country which, however, has hosted a million Syrians for ten years who have sought refuge from war. A quarter of its population ”.
In the book, Clausi passionately describes a city that few people know and which is often the victim of prejudices. And which thrives on fascinating contradictions that make it unique and – at the same time – fundamental in the international geopolitical framework. “Beirut au revoir” is a fundamental guide for those who are preparing to understand such a complex part of the world. Covid and the economic crisisas Clausi explains in his book using the words of Ave Tavoukjianjournalist of the Daily Star (newspaper that in the Land of the Cedars has been closed, ed), to become another Cuba: “Unless there is a change in the status quo, most likely we will become the Cuba of the Middle East in the near future – he says – where the only things that will remain to be appreciated are the cuisine and the exciting Lebanese songs that sadly recall the years before 2020 ». For Clausi, “a bitter fate for a country and a people who deserve a different fate”.