Book Club
Lebanese-born author Rana Hanna presents her evocative debut novel Birds in the Rain (Bold Story Press, August 5, 2025) in a special book event at Artos House. The novel explores love, memory, and resilience in the aftermath of conflict.
Set during the 2006 Lebanese-Israeli war, Birds in the Rain follows Layla, a grieving mother searching for her missing son on the eve of another national catastrophe. Her path intertwines with Marc, a former militia member grappling with his own past, as they navigate intertwined histories. Hanna’s story unfolds as both a mystery and a meditation on survival, transformation, and the enduring power of human connection.
Written with lyrical precision and emotional depth, the novel captures the ephemeral beauty of belonging while exploring the weight of memory and the necessity of reinvention.
Hanna, who lived in Cyprus for four years following the Beirut explosion, says her time there shaped her understanding of rebuilding after rupture:
“I wanted to capture how ordinary people rebuild after extraordinary loss, how love can survive even when certainty cannot,” says Hanna.
A former journalist and editor living between Beirut, London, and Cyprus, Hanna writes from lived experience. Her prose reflects how home can be both refuge and rupture, a landscape of longing and resilience. Birds in the Rain promises a deeply human portrait of endurance, making it especially resonant for readers navigating dislocation in any form.
Event details:
On 19 November at 18:00 at Artos House, 64, Ay. Omologites Ave, 1080 Nicosia, Cyprus