Contemporary
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Sami is summoned for an interrogation over the murder of someone he met once years earlier. The victim is yet another gay man found dead at home, as occurs frequently in Lebanon. This one though had a prominent father, which ensured detectives investigating his death would leave no stone unturned.
As Beirut buzzes with the scandal, Sami finds himself talking about nothing else all week – getting engaged in conversations he’d rather not have with friends and relatives who are concerned he would meet the same fate.
He grudgingly revisits all that it means to be homosexual in today’s world, especially for gay people living in countries where their legal rights to even exist have not yet been acknowledged. Where they remain largely invisible and have been written out of history. Where traditions, religions, laws, and general social environments force them to cope by pretending their lives away …
While hopeful for a healthier future for gay people everywhere, Sami emphasizes the crucial need for homosexuals to reflect on how their prevailing lifestyles promote self-destruction. He also rallies against Western “LGBTQ+” politics, highlighting their nefarious impact on how homosexuals have come to be perceived around the world.
“The Harm We Do Ourselves represents an important addition to the literature on gay experiences, particularly those outside the Western world. By challenging prevailing narratives and encouraging introspection, Akouri has created a work that promises to spark meaningful discussions about identity, society, and personal responsibility.” This Is Beirut
Here's what readers have to say about this book....
This book is a gripping and honest look at what it means to be gay in Lebanon, where individuals often face oppression and invisibility. Through Sami's story, we see the struggle of someone forced to confront both external societal pressures and their own internal conflicts. The writing is raw and personable, making Sami’s journey feel deeply real and relatable. What stands out most is how the book addresses the complexities of living in a place where homosexuality is still taboo. It doesn't shy away from tough questions about the impact of both local culture and Western politics, offering a unique perspective on a global issue. This is a book that starts necessary conversations about identity, self-destruction, and the fight for acceptance in a society that often refuses to see you. Eye-opening and thought-provoking, it’s an important read for anyone looking to better understand the struggles faced by gay people in Lebanon and beyond.
The Harm We Do Ourselves is not a mere novel, with different characters developing in a certain predetermined environment and evolving each in his or her own way. We are rather at the heart of a play, which one would really like to see enacted in a theatre in Beirut, London, New York or anywhere for that matter where homosexuality may be discussed and where woke ideology may be critiqued on its own terms and made to answer. Sami is not just an angst-ridden homosexual, nor an individual out on a crusade of hetero-bashing. He is firstly one who refuses to occupy the margin and remain there, and especially one who goes against the current grain of strategic essentialism – as if there were some essences left and even less invented and discarded at will – and that novel woke idea which makes anyone outside a group unable by definition to truly engage with it, thus inaugurating a world of communities unable to truly communicate. Sami is a happy walking-wounded man, who is a whirlwind of awareness of a community’s failures and its own internal strife – with the unwitting harm it has brought on itself itself. The reader finds this protagonist simple at first, as he engages in everyday banter with his friend Maya. But the everyday slowly unravels a painful (hi)story of rebellion and resistance which has brought a lucidity the reader discovers in complex layers which come to form a dialogue worthy of a stage enactment. A definitely excellent and enjoyable read.
I'm just going to purchase the book I have been long awaiting as the talent behind this pen is just well no spoilers buy it on my responsibility.
