num_pages: 200
description: Abu Ali and his brother have just moved to bustling 1960s Beirut. They spend their days sitting in the sun outside their traditional bakery, chatting with customers.For the men working inside the bakery life is starkly different. Working endless shifts in the furious heat of the old bread oven, they fantasize about escape. Mohammed sings all day long in his beautiful tenor voice, while the others lean exhausted on sacks of flour and dream of becoming wrestlers. When the brothers acquire their revolutionary new bread-making machine, the workers struggle to adapt to the new conditions, and one by one their dreams fade into oblivion ...A poignant, wry portrait of a 1960s Beirut as it burgeons into the future.Translated by Randa Jarrar.Hassan Daoud is chief editor of Nawafez (Windows), the cultural supplement for Al Mustaqbal Daily in Beirut. He has also served as cultural editor and contributor to other Lebanese national newspapers.His novels include House of Mathilde (Granta, Actes Sud), The Penguin's Song and Added Days (both Lenos).
language: English
title: The Year of the Revolutionary New Bread-making Machine
publisher: Telegram Books