Author
Rawi Hage
Associated Country
Canada
Rawi Hage is a Lebanese-Canadian novelist and visual artist known for his powerful, poetic explorations of war, exile, and displacement. Born in 1964 in Beirut, he grew up during the Lebanese Civil War before emigrating to Canada, where he later studied photography and visual arts in Montreal.
Hage gained international recognition with his debut novel De Niro’s Game, which won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His subsequent works, including Cockroach, Carnival, and Beirut Hellfire Society, continue to examine themes of migration, identity, survival, and the psychological effects of conflict. His writing is noted for its lyrical intensity, dark humor, and vivid portrayal of marginalized lives.
Hage gained international recognition with his debut novel De Niro’s Game, which won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His subsequent works, including Cockroach, Carnival, and Beirut Hellfire Society, continue to examine themes of migration, identity, survival, and the psychological effects of conflict. His writing is noted for its lyrical intensity, dark humor, and vivid portrayal of marginalized lives.
Books
Stray Dogs 2022
In Montreal, a photographer’s unexpected encounter with actress Sophia Loren leads to a life-altering revelation about his dead mother.
In Beirut, a disillusioned geologist eagerly awaits the...
On a ravaged street overlooking a cemetery in a Christian enclave in war-torn 1970s Beirut, we meet Pavlov, the son of a local undertaker. When his father dies suddenly, Pavlov is approached by a...
Carnival 2013
In Carnival, internationally acclaimed author Rawi Hage takes us into the world of Fly, a taxi driver in a crime-ridden apocalyptic metropolis.
Raised in the circus, the son of a golden-haired trapeze...
Cockroach 2010
In Montreal's restless immigrant community, our unnamed narrator is living in despair. Forced to visit a therapist after a suicide attempt, he brings us back to his childhood in a war-torn country,...
De Niro's Game 2008
Childhood best friends Bassam and George have grown to be men in war-ravaged Beirut. Now they must choose between the only two futures available to them: to stay in the devastated city and consolidate...