Sadly I can't give this a fait rating .

The format of the book came through all higgledy piggledy on my kindle (this has now happened a few times when requesting books from netgalley) and being dyslexic, i was not going to put myself in a position of stressfully trying to read these sentences that appeared all over the screen

A multi-layered and expansive novel about family, friendship, identity, war and dislocation, told through the experiences of Amin, living as a child in Lebanon, moving with his grandmother to Germany after the death of his parents, then returning as a young man when he reflects on the past and attempts to come to terms with it. It’s an ambitious novel, perhaps even a little too ambitious. It sometimes seemed to lack cohesion, jumping about frequently in time and place, and with a large cast of secondary characters and many subplots. Perhaps it would have worked better by concentrating more on Amin. However, perhaps all the possible extraneous material is necessary to give a complete portrait of this most tumultuous of areas. On the whole the various strands are cleverly interwoven, and the complicated political history seamlessly worked into the narrative. I enjoyed the book and learnt a lot about life in Lebanon before, during and after the 15-year Civil War. It’s an often moving book, dedicated to the 17,000 who disappeared without trace during that war. A love letter and a tribute to Lebanon and its people, told with insight, empathy and skilful narrative power. Highly recommended.

Set in Beirut and switching between 2011 the time of the Arab uprising, and 2004 when Amin returned to the Lebaanon from Germany with his Grandmother. It tells the story Of Amin and his friend from school, Jafar as they grow up and roam the bombed out buildings of Beirut. It has vignettes of the past from Jafars early days and bits pieced together of Amins.I t is lyrically told at a slow but steady pace.

It is a story of Lebanon and its people, of the consequences of war, and memories of growing up in a city growing back from the ashes.

It´s a slow-paced novel of friendship, family, love and history with beautiful, lyrical writing. I enjoyed reading about Beirut, so beloved by its citizens and with such a violent history. I also liked the friendship between two boys set against crumbling buildings and dark corners of the city on the mends. But the story jumped between moments and timelines, making it hard to follow the narrative. It also felt like there wasn´t much of a plot or a direction in the novel. The characters were quite interesting but rather vague, and I didn´t feel connected with them.

Overall, I enjoyed the writing style and the premise but didn´t relate to the story as much as I wanted to.

Ever seeking and mostly never finding the double-digit thousands of missing persons from the years of civil war in Lebanon are overwhelming statistics to us, but a never-ending heartbreak to the loved ones of the missing. Reading this work of Historical Fiction that packs punches of accuracy according to stark facts, at this time of current events with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is almost too overwhelmingly poignant to handle. Yet this story had to be told.

As author Pierre Jarawan tightly weaves his words in this Song for the Missing, that fear, anxiety, confusion of bewildering thoughts and stories weave a canvas and kaleidoscope of unsettlement, hinged around a cherished-by-Grandmother painting, which the main character Amin's mother had painted to ironic perfection. Amins' parents were killed in a freak car accident, at least so he was told. The Grandmother Yara raised Amin taking him to Germany when he was about nine months old and for about twelve years lived and waited out in that foreign land; away from the conflicts, away from the mysteriouly ominous disappearances of the many whisked away at seemingly random times, places, and for mostly unknown reasons.

When Grandmother Yara returns with Amin to Lebanon, she is almost a whole new personage. Amin tries to piece all these puzzling pieces together. What happened here in Lebanon in those away years. Digging the facts out from all the ruin and rubble of Beirut and Tripoli was more or less a useless frustrating pursuit, as bad as trying to find all those missing persons. Why? Why? Why did Grandmotherr and her friends behave the way they did, almost like a secret society? What were they actually doing? What drew this motley lot of them together? Why did Grandmother paint those pictures and insist on leaving them detrimentally up on the walls of the cafe?

Abbas, another 'friend' was a stalwart constant in their lives in Germany as well as Lebanon. What was his role in all of this? Jafar, someone Amin met at school, became a bosom friend for fun adventures and storytelling but also a sort of tour guide through the destruction and debris. Despite their strong bond they never quite opened up their minds to each other. How could Jafar do that anyway? He was the one who had experienced and suffered firsthand through all the nightmares of war, not Amin. They were like from two completely different worlds.

The art of storytelling was a big feature in this book and even perhaps part and parcel of the Lebanese fabric and culture. Due to all the unrest and uncertain times, there was fear of losing this art that one man especially, wished to hang on to.

From this story I now have a little better understanding of those conflicts I heard about whilst growing up; of the lies and lure of war; of the horrendous devastation of war not just of the buildings but of the people and their shredded emotions.

The author gives some further brief notes along with his references at the book's end that are helpful and can guide the readers to further investigation of the conflict on their own. Due to the nature and topic of this book, it was not an easy one to read but I believe it should be read, the story told and hopefully the Lebanon lessons learned. Thanks go to Mr. Pierre Jarawan for this book!

~Eunice C., Reviewer/Blogger~

March 2022

Disclaimer: This is my honest opinion based on the review copy sent by NetGalley and the publisher.

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The country and conflict that provides the setting and backstory and current plot of this book, is not one that I was familiar with and so I went into this blind and I learnt so much. This book was well written with well developed characters and an emotive storyline that was truly heartbreaking at times. It was a slow burner that was almost lyrical in prose and that really added an extra depth to it. It was a beautiful read.

aching. Set partially in Beirut in the 90s with a child's perspective (one boy returned from abroad running through bombed out buildings with a random boy from the neighborhood who'd been there through the war) amidst so much not-understood yet seen and then reappraised from the perspective of an adult which reckons with his grandmother's protective instinct to not tell him about his world and who that childhood friend was. Kept forgetting it was not memoir, it was soooo personal.

A story about Lebanon and its people, about a boy growing up in postwar Beirut and the same boy as a grown-up. A story about family, love, friendship, memories, and the history of a beautiful city that has been the location of so much sectarian violence, even nowadays.

Reading a book after one I wanted to give a thousand stars is always difficult for me, and I find it hard to let go of such a book. That’s why I deliberately chose a completely different genre and waited a day to start reading Song for the Missing.

This book is lyrical and has stunning poetic passages. It’s a translation from German, and I believe the translator did a great job. I loved reading about a beautiful city that has been through so much. I loved reading about the friendship between two boys living in it. But I struggled to get through the story. The first part is kind of a mess, and when I finally connected all those dots, I had already lost interest. Song for the Missing continuously jumps back and forth between different moments (especially 1994 and 2006), and while I love multiple timelines, I didn’t like the time jumps in this story. The slow pacing didn’t help either, especially not on the weekend (New Year) when I struggled to concentrate and keep my attention on the story.

I always feel sad when I love the writing and the premise but don’t connect to the story as much as I wanted to, and it’s probably an it’s me, not you case. So, if you’re interested in this book, I’d suggest you check out the more positive reviews. And read the book when you can fully concentrate.

Actual rating 2.5 stars.

I didn't know much about Lebanon, but I remembered that for years it was constantly on the news for one conflict or the other.
This novel puts some things clear although it's not at all stringent history. The constant time shift needs some getting used to, but I really loved this slow-paced novel.

"A city of fountains and soft light, the orchid of the Mediterranean. Close your eyes and think of Beirut."

This is a strikingly lyrical book with a warmth and nostalgia that co-exists with more difficult memories of loss and tragedies. I'd say that readers should let go of any preconceptions of a driving shape to the narrative as this is closer to the peripatetic traditional folk tales of storytellers that are given a central place in the book. I had to do some Googling, too, on the political background to events which are merely delineated here. More perhaps of the book was centred on Amin as a twelve year old boy than I'd have liked but that's personal taste. Overall, this is surprisingly calm, even serene, on the surface though it deals with civil war, occupation, repression - and the love story/coming-of-age story co-exists amidst the troubles as a kind of paean to the human spirit despite the surrounding conflict.

It's worth mentioning that the translation reads fluently throughout.