Lebanon Days

HIGHLY COMMENDED, 2025 ACT BOOK OF THE YEAR
'Ell's writing is compelling. The book is written from a personal viewpoint, which he combines with meticulous research that weaves in historical information and context...it is clear he has taken a lot of care to convey truth and accuracy. His prose is often beautiful, horrific and confronting at the same time.' The Saturday Paper

'Ell is a gifted writer: his prose is unaffected, precise and elegant. He has taken the drama of his three years in Lebanon to illuminate this fascinating country's past.' The Conversation

From 2018 to 2021, writer and researcher Theodore Ell accompanied his wife on her diplomatic posting to Lebanon and unexpectedly found himself a witness to a country on the brink of collapse.
In 2019, facing economic meltdown, the people of Lebanon rose up, united in a revolution of hope. With the country on the precipice of war, Covid-19 then swept in and the eerie quiet of lockdowns descended-a silence tragically shattered in August 2020, when Ell narrowly survived the largest ever non-nuclear peacetime explosion, which destroyed half of Beirut.

Everywhere from calm cedar forests to crowded Beirut bars, Ell listened to stories of the Lebanese people and tried to make sense of the maze of ideas, desires and illusions that create the Lebanon of their imagination, a place in sharp contrast to reality.

In prose as lucid as it is emotionally rich, and based on reportage that won Ell the 2021 Calibre Prize, Lebanon Days welcomes those who wish to understand more than news footage can convey. This is the story of a nation largely ignored by the rest of the world, a complex country driven over the edge but still seeking faith in itself, seen through the eyes of an outsider drawn into its intimate struggle.

'Lebanon Days is a meditation on a country that never leaves its visitors unaffected. Ell is a gifted writer: his prose is unaffected, precise and elegant.' - The Conversation

'Riveting...His record of the time, often poetic in treatment, incorporates history, the deeply troubled politics of the country, as well as the stories of Lebanese people. The result is a vivid, thoughtful outsider's portrait of the country through five, literally and metaphorically, explosive years.' - The Sydney Morning Herald

'A vivid, thoughtful outsider's portrait of the country through five, literally and metaphorically, explosive years.' - The Age

'[A] powerful and beautifully written memoir...Ell brings to memoir the skills of a published poet, a talent for the haunting vignette, and an extraordinary sensitivity to the chaotic palimpsest that is the history of this ancient place...One of the strengths of this memoir is that it leaves ample room for the reader's imaginative collaboration.' The Australian Book Review