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LITERATURE

Return to roots for Bruno Tabbal and his 'country from which one never recovers'

He has always had a taste for words — borrowed, recited, sung, or staged. Today, he releases his first novel in French with Artliban Calima publishing, which he will sign on Feb. 5*. Portrait of a nostalgic rebel.

Return to roots for Bruno Tabbal and his 'country from which one never recovers'

Bruno Tabbal, singer, actor, and director, has just published his first novel.

He is known for his sharp criticisms, outspoken comments and sometimes overly passionate political analyses, not always approved, published in media and on social networks. His softer, crooner side is also known on stage, tender at the heart of his nature of Chatine, more inspired in his unconditional friendships. Still remembered by many Lebanese who discovered him many years ago during his participation in Star Academy in 2003-2004, Bruno Tabbal, actor, singer and director, has taken some distance from his career to join a nature that inspires, fills, and fulfills him.

His first quick, almost violent success came with the Lebanese Star Academy. Everything then seemed possible and this pseudo-freedom quickly turned into a burden.

“We were young and not really prepared for this ultimately ephemeral and dangerous fame where you are loved for the image you project and not for who you are. 21 years later, it makes me smile now ... It was a turning point in my life. I mourned that era which taught me a lot, even if it was also with pain and disillusionment.”

But Bruno is a free and stubborn perfectionist, who wants to do things his way, even at the risk of displeasure. “I continued singing outside a system that does not resemble me for a long time, then I decided to pursue my career as I saw fit. And to develop other facets of my artistic personality, directing, theater,” he said. In "And Yet" – published in 2015 in English by Tadros, which he described as “a kind of essay,” he reflects on the 11 years that followed.

Arrived at the right place

“Today, I feel like I am in the right place. In a balance that allows me to spend 6 months of the year in Beirut, where I try to multiply projects, and six months from spring onward in Chatine,” where he finds his mountains, dawns, the earth, and simple people. The smile too.

Children’s shows, theater productions, concerts — his calendar remains busy — it is in the essential that he draws his happiness. By creating Snounou in 2017 (“swallow” in Arabic), an initiative that allows him to take lovers of wide-open spaces and beautiful Lebanese villages on precious walks, but also to help the development of the rural, cultural and tourist area, he transformed into a guide who knows every stone, every bend of a tree, the sound of a leaf in autumn, the scent of a sunset in spring, the taste of every fruit and vegetable in this region of Batroun.

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If Murakami were told to us

And more precisely Chatine stole his heart, “my village,” as he calls it, though he is not originally from there, but where he lived the best years of his childhood and now his adult life. Chatine is at the heart of his autobiographical novel, where he, through the pages, shares his funny, frightening moments, his moving memories built around a united family. Novel characters, the father, the mother, the brother, the friends, the neighbors populate these lines, which are also a walk through the paths of his life.

“I write all the time. In my head, on paper,” said Tabbal. “I started writing this book in 2011. Only a few pages actually. I resumed in 2022, I felt ready, everything flowed naturally. It is one of the most personal and important projects of my life. I didn’t want to fall into self-flattery. I also wanted to be able to hold the reader’s attention and succeed in taking them into my memories.”

Bruno Tabbal, a happy country mouse.

The roots of his well-being

In "The country from which one never recovers," the narrative is fluid, images and colors follow each other, illustrating privileged moments where the author’s childhood and adolescence took place, punctuated, almost scented with emotions. These discoveries of life occurred in the context of a country drenched in a sneaky war with its share of anxieties. On these pages of little stories, adventures, light or heavier, come to be superimposed fragments of history, in the context of the 19th century and the period of the Mount Lebanon mutasarrifate. “I love this era, I did a lot of research to be as precise as possible.”

The book signing will take place on Feb. 5 at the Monnot Theater.

Now fully integrated into the village of all his memories, he has enjoyed organizing his festival for three years, a joyful moment, like a hymn to the love he has for it. At the end of the evening, unable to do otherwise, Bruno takes the stage, grabs the microphone, and becomes for a few moments his "other," the francophone singer of the cities.

“When the seasons unfold in a thousand colors within the provinces of this cursed country," he wrote in the conclusion of his book, it insolently invites itself further into our being and settles more firmly in our hearts. Never has such a narrow territory achieved the feat of bringing together such an impressive range of diversity, beauty, and humanity. "My country is the country of reunions, celebrations and constant festivities. Here now, the boy of yesterday and the adult of today are blended, hands joined on my chest, eyes wet and throat dry, secretly renewing the bond of the age of happiness: 'This is my country!' The country from which one never recovers.”

This country which is certainly the one of childhood.

“I am serene, satisfied, with a feeling of accomplishment and emotional, personal, and intellectual satisfaction within me. From here on, my baby no longer belongs to me.”

*The book signing for “The country from which one never recovers” (Artliban Calima editions) will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 5, starting at 5 p.m. at the Monnot Theater. More than just a signing session, it is an invitation to an immersive experience staged by Bruno Tabbal.

This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.

He is known for his sharp criticisms, outspoken comments and sometimes overly passionate political analyses, not always approved, published in media and on social networks. His softer, crooner side is also known on stage, tender at the heart of his nature of Chatine, more inspired in his unconditional friendships. Still remembered by many Lebanese who discovered him many years ago during his...