Elias Khoury’s novel Broken Mirrors: Sinalcol, translated by Humphrey Davies, follows Karim Shammas, a doctor who returns to Beirut after years in France, and his brother Nassim, who has stayed behind and grown rich during Lebanon’s long civil war. The two brothers once fought on opposite sides.

Around them circles the elusive figure of “Sinalcol”, a man whose identity shifts with each account. Through overlapping stories of love, betrayal and war, Khoury examines memory and the impossibility of a single truth about Lebanon’s recent history, including the role of the Palestinian movement in Beirut and the violence that tore the city apart. It is a demanding but rewarding novel by one of the most important writers in Arabic.