by Rabih Alameddine · tapa blanda · ISBN 9782365692069
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«Les vies de papier» is the novel by Rabih Alameddine, published by Les Escales in paperback (329 pages, in French).
Aaliya Saleh, 72, lives on the margins of Beirut's conventions and finds refuge in literature. Every January 1, Aaliya lights two candles for Walter Benjamin and translates works by Kafka, Pessoa, or Nabokov into Arabic. The novel interweaves Aaliya's memories, her bookshop, her friend Hannah, and the war years with a love of books.
Originally published as An Unnecessary Woman (2013); the French edition, translated by Nicolas Richard, won the Prix Femina Étranger 2016.
For readers of literary fiction and book clubs, interested in Beirut, the memory of war, and the power of books.
Rabih Alameddine is a Lebanese painter and writer. His 2021 novel The Wrong End of the Telescope won the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He also won the 2025 National Book Award for Fiction for his novel The True True Story of Raja the Gullible.
