Theodore Ell
Lebanon Days
Allen & Unwin, 2024
Memories of an ancient land through economic meltdown, a revolution of hope and surviving the 2020 Beirut explosion
A captivating memoir that unravels the emotional struggles of a nation the world has long overlooked. Through the eyes of an outsider, this story takes a deep dive into the intimate details of Lebanon's hardships, providing a profound understanding of its people and their journey.
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.
“An astonishing piece of writing.’ Helen Garner on Ell’s ‘Façades of Lebanon’, winner of the 2021 Calibre Essay Prize. ‘Theodore Ell is a perfect literary guide. Always curious, never presumptuous, he writes of Lebanon’s recent tragedies with precision, empathy and, when warranted, outrage.”
About the Author
Theodore Ell was born in Sydney in 1984. He studied literature and modern languages at the University of Sydney, spent periods of further study and research in Italy and was awarded a PhD in 2010. For several years he earned a living freelance as an editor, translator and researcher, and co-founded the international journal Contrappasso Magazine, of which he was co-editor.
Ell moved to Canberra in 2015 to begin working in the public service. From 2018 to 2021 he lived in Lebanon, accompanying his wife on a diplomatic posting. Ell's essay 'Façades of Lebanon', about Lebanese revolution and the Beirut port explosion, won the 2021 Calibre Essay Prize. His poetry collection Beginning in Sight shared the 2022 Anne Elder Award.
Ell's poetry, essays, translations and nonfiction have been published in Australia, Italy, the United Kingdom and Lebanon. He is an honorary lecturer in literature at the Australian National University.
