This MEMRI will not cover

"The author was taken aback by their positive feedback and nostalgia for the old days in Wadi Abu Jamil. Abdelsamad herself, she says, is part of the generation that only heard about the Lebanon's Jewish community but never encountered it. “They had such nice memories of Lebanon," Abdelsamad told the Times. "They talked about in a nearly nostalgic way. It was surprising." When Abdelsamad spoke to her friends about her work, they encouraged her to expand the project and pen a novel on the topic. Abdelsamad embarked on trying to find Lebanese Jews living in countries such as Canada who were willing to share their memories of life in Lebanon. One interview led to another. "It was a chain of interviews," she said, adding that she was met with a bit of skepticism at first by some of the people she interviewed. "People asked me, 'Will it be harmful for us to talk?’ They were skeptical because this is a topic that has been sleeping for all these years." Soon, however, the memories of Wadi Abu Jamil started to come alive and Abdelsamad was able to reconstruct some of the neighborhood's long-lost Jewish characters, as remembered by their friends and old neighbors." (thanks Dina)

The book is part of the shipment of books that I purchased from Bissan Bookshop in Beirut. Once I receive it and read it, I shall let you know.