Web-based photographs of Layla Baalbaki.
After a long stay in London, Layla returned to Beirut in 2009 to sign her novels, “I Live” and “The Gods Deformed,” and her short story collection “Spaceship of Tenderness to the Moon,” which had been republished by Dar al-Adab, at the Beirut Book Fair. Surrounded by her books, Layla seemed as if she was still preserving her old magic and charm. She was Beirut’s “star” novelist during the 60s, especially after “Spaceship of Tenderness” was banned in 1964 on charges of immorality. She was arrested, tried, and won the case.
The Arabic version of this essay appeared in Independent Arabia.
Translated from the Arabic by Elie Chalala.
Translated from the Arabic by Elie Chalala.
Excerpted from “Layla Baalbaki (1936-2023): Lebanese Writer Who Left a Revolutionary Storm in Modern Arab Feminist Novel at 22 Before Unexpected Adieu to Fiction Writing” by Abdo Wazen, scheduled to appear in the forthcoming Al Jadid, Vol. 27, No. 84, 2023.
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