Kindle Price: $9.99

Save $3.00 (23%)

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs

Follow the author

Ilyās Khūrī
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

White Masks Kindle Edition

by Elias Khoury (Author), Maia Tabet (Translator) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 out of 5 stars 19
See all formats and editions
Why was the corpse of Khalil Ahmad Jaber found in a mound of garbage? Why had this civil servant disappeared weeks before his horrific death? Who was this man? A journalist begins to piece together an answer by speaking with his widow, a local engineer, a watchman, the garbage man who discovered him, the doctor who performed the autopsy, and a young militiaman. Their stories emerge, along with the horrors of Lebanon’s bloody civil war and its ravaging effects on the psyches of the survivors. With empathy and candor, Elias Khoury reveals the havoc the war wreaked on Beirut and its inhabitants, as well as the resilience of a people.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    305 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Archipelago
  5. Publication date
    March 1, 2010
  6. File size
    681 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
Next page

Editorial Reviews

Review


"Khoury is the sort of novelist whose name is inseparable from a city. Los Angeles has Joan Didion and Raymond Chandler, and Istanbul Orhan Pamuk. The beautiful, resilient city of Beirut belongs to Khoury."
The Los Angeles Times

"No Lebanese writer has been more successful than Elias Khoury in telling the story of Lebanon … Khoury is one of the most innovative novelists in the Arab world."
Washington Post Book World

"How to write Beirut? … with words and images that stumble with weariness, that collapse from the heat, from the stone which composes them only to crumble in turn? … This is why Khoury's fiction is so powerful. The intent of the writing is to restore the soul."
Tahar Ben Jelloun

"Elias Khoury is a pure storyteller. A writer who understands the hypnotic power of words, and who lets this power become the actual subject of his books. Of course, alongside the words, there is reality, palpable, sensuous, atrocious."
Le Nouvel Observateur

"Khoury [is] arguably the finest living Arab novelist. . . . White Masks represents a turning point in Khoury's work. . . . A compelling, thoughtful read."
World Literature Today

"Powerful . . . Tantalizing. . . . Maia Tabet's translation from the Arabic is lucid and refreshing."
Counterpunch

"Khoury's story is rich in the detail of daily life, and together the telling of the cast's Rashoman-like tale weaves the web of a society deeply scarred by Beirut's bitter and protracted civil wars, along with the complex reality, unbelievable anecdotes, and deeply visceral survival instincts of its people."
Ghada Amer, The Global Journal

About the Author

Elias Khoury is the editor of the literary supplement of al-Nahar newspaper in Beirut. He has taught at the American University of Beirut, Columbia University, and NYU. Picador will bring out GATE of the SUN in paperback this spring and Little Mountain, Gates of the City, and The Journey of Little Ghandi.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00499DSDY
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Archipelago (March 1, 2010)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 1, 2010
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 681 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 305 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 098198732X
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 out of 5 stars 19

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Ilyās Khūrī

Ilyās Khūrī

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
19 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

IrisGarden
5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoy!
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2017
Verified Purchase
It's quite obvious that many prize winning authors have read Khoury. Enjoy!
Helpful
 Report
Gus
4.0 out of 5 stars Uneasy Read
Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2013
Verified Purchase
Throughout the book, the author tends to ramble and digress, making it a difficult and incoherent book to read. But just when you think you're lost, a pice of e puzzle comes into play. In any case, it gives a great depiction of day-to-day lives in a war torn country.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
James W. Fonseca
4.0 out of 5 stars Just an Everyday Murder in Beirut
Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2015
A novel of the Civil War in Lebanon which has been more-or-less on-going since 1958. This is a work about the impact of the war on common urban folks. How a father, mother and sister go crazy after the loss of their son and brother. The author focuses the story around a common-place killing. The father, whose son was killed in the fighting some years ago, basically goes bonkers and wanders around town putting up posters memorializing his son as a martyr, but later, removing them. The father ends up killed with evidence of torture, his body abandoned in a trash heap. Such a murder is of absolutely no interest to anyone except his family and that is why the author choose this incident as the focus of his work. This book is a “war story” but it’s not about battles – it’s about the psychological impact of war on people, such as the behavior of the father and a daughter who starts acting like a dog. But life goes on. We learn a lot about Lebanon and Beirut in the book; the diversity of the country – Armenians, Palestinians, Druze, Kurds and Christians. We learn about the callous treatment of women, looting and profiteering.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Jean Grant
5.0 out of 5 stars Beirut: a murder explored
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2015
This strange novel about the search for clues to the murder of the father of a "martyr" in the first years of Lebanese Civil War puzzled me often, but I kept reading, impressed by Elias Khoury's gifted depiction of Beirut, where I lived at that time. He captures the chaos, the resilience of the Beirutis and the weirdness of the war. The novel takes some effort to read and lacks suspense, but never mind, that's a trivial price to pay for such sustained brilliance and originality of expression.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report