In "Pays Amer" ("Bitter Country"), a fiction freely inspired by the life of Marie al-Khazen (1899-1983), author Georgia Makhlouf takes her readers from Beirut in the wake of the 2020 Port explosion, where Mona, a young marginalized photographer, struggles to survive, to a village in northern Lebanon in the early 20th century where Marie, from the bourgeoisie, indulges in the emerging art of photography. Through the life stories of these two Lebanese photographers, separated by a century and very different contexts, yet confronted by the same weight of tradition and social prejudices, the novelist weaves — with precise writing imbued with delicate melancholy — the portrait of two women in love with freedom. And perhaps, in the background, that of a nation also wounded, seeking liberation..."Pays Amer," your third novel, interlaces the...