A ‘wonderful murder’ that can’t be solved, witnesses who witness very little, a narrator who remains unnamed... ‘White Masks’ may revolve around the death of Khalil Ahmad Jaber, a civil servant whose butchered, half-naked body is found in Beirut’s UNESCO district, but it’s no whodunnit.

Set, and written, five years into the Lebanese civil conflict, from the outset the narrator (a travel agent and former journalist who passes the time by investigating the story) disparagingly informs his readers that the affair ‘may not be of particular interest to readers, as people these days have more important things to do than read stories or listen to tales.’

A dual attack on the lawless looters of Beirut and the blind eye of the international community, it’s soon clear that Khoury’s own characters – housewives, soldiers and government employees – also have more ‘important things’ at hand. In a series of vignettes, the victim’s neighbours and acquaintances divulge their stories from a neighbourhood under siege.

Their confessions, however, are not of murder, but of the anarchy taking over the community; old women are raped, doctors are incontinent, and Khalil Ahmad Jaber is revealed to be a madman. It’s harrowing stuff. Yet, Khoury never panders to the vitriolic tone of an anti-war novel. Instead, it’s an artful act of storytelling (and wonderfully translated by Maia Tabet) told from the Green Line, but never naming a faction. Natasha Dirany