PHOENICIA

The Stoic philosopher Zeno of Citium never denied that he was Phoenician. In Athens, where he taught, he recounted to his pupil, Apollonius, the tragedy of his mother who was from Tyre. Travelling with her uncle, the young woman embarks on a voyage that allows her to discover the Phoenician trading posts scattered along the Mediterranean coast all the way to Carthage. Once back in her native city, she finds it besieged by the troops of Alexander the Great. A staunch resistance is organized. The Phoenicians reject the occupation and fight with the energy of the desperate. They are perfectly aware that the very existence of their civilization is at risk.

In this novel, Alexandre Najjar retells the epic of the Phoenicians—sailors, tradesmen, and inventors of the alphabet, who were forced to bear arms against the Macedonian king in order to defend Tyre, symbol of their achievements and grandeur. In a clever interplay of the tales of the besieged and the besiegers, the author presents a simultaneous double image which also serves as a metaphor for modern day Lebanon, a damaged country crying out for freedom.

This book is probably the first novel entirely about Phoenicians. The compelling heroine, Elissa, and the other colorful characters in the Phoenician camp include Gerbaal, the seasoned sailor, Ariston, the idealistic sculptor, Zakarbaal, the double crossing opportunist, and Yamas, the irascible murex merchant. The Macedonian camp includes Alexander the Great, violent and superstitious, Barsine, his beautiful concubine, Hephestion, his friend and confidant, Aristandre, his trusted soothsayer, and Diades, his diabolical engineer. The reader discovers a riveting world and learns how a peaceful people, in order to preserve their honor, fight the most formidable conqueror of all times.

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