num_pages: 364
description: Beirut is not a typical destination for a young Australian couple embarking on their first year of married life. But when Catherine Taylor and her husband begin work as foreign correspondents based in the Middle East they decide to set up home in this ravaged city. Catherine soon falls in love with the Paris of the Middle East and becomes intrigued by the complexity of its peole: their exuberance and warmth, and Beirut's vibrant Mediterranean lifestyle, seem to starkly contrast with the dark tales she has heard of violence and hatred. As Catherine's work takes her across the region, from conflict on the West Bank to war in Iraq, a world behond the cliched descriptions on the nightly news gradually opens up.
language: English
title: Once Upon a Time in Beirut
publisher: Bantam