“Literature speaks in many ways. It speaks to the present, of course, and to the future, if it is good literature. But literature is also a way for the writer to make a dialogue with the dead. This is the power of literature. It is not like religion: religion gives you the feeling that you are eternal. Here, there is no eternity at all, but it opens the possibility of dialoguing with the dead.”
Archiv: Elias Khoury
Lebanon mourns the loss of leading novelist Elias Khoury
“Never in my life have I felt that life gives you more than you deserve more than at that moment, where literature transforms into reality,” Khoury said in an interview at the time.
Khoury’s well-known love for Palestine meant even more to Itani when he was falsely accused of collaborating with Israel in Lebanon in 2017.
At the time, Khoury wrote a fierce piece defending Itani, and expressed his disgust towards those pursuing him.
When Itani went to thank Khoury, the latter told him, “Are you serious? I raised you!”