Ahl al-Hawa

Published by Dar Al-Adab, Disciples of Passion (Ahl al-Hawa) by award-winning Lebanese author Hoda Barakat is a haunting, multi-layered masterpiece of psychological realism set against the aftermath of the Lebanese Civil War. The narrative unfolds entirely from the mind of a traumatized, disabled protagonist residing in a psychiatric hospital near Beirut. Through fragmented memories, unreliability, and shifting hallucinations, the narrator attempts to reconstruct his intense romance with a woman from the opposing side of the war—a story tangled in abduction, desire, and ultimate violence. Barakat abandons conventional linear plotting, choosing instead to start at the emotional zenith where passion and hatred merge. In this novel, the external conflict recedes into the background to become an internalized trauma, presenting a visceral meditation on how war distorts love into obsession, violence, and total psychological breakdown.

It is a brilliantly written, uncompromising character study that examines the psychological scars of war and the perilous line between profound love and destructive delusion.

Ideal for readers of translated modern Middle Eastern literature, scholars of Lebanese Civil War fiction, and fans of dark, psychological narratives centered on memory, passion, and trauma.