Awards
2008 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
Synopses & Reviews
De Niro's Game plunges readers into the timely story of two young men caught in Lebanon's civil war. Bassam and George, best friends in childhood, have grown to adulthood in war-torn Beirut. Now they must choose their futures: to stay in the city and consolidate power through crime, or to go into exile abroad, alienated from the only existence they have known.
Told in a distinctive, captivating voice that fuses vivid cinematic imagery and page-turning plot with the measured strength and beauty of Arabic poetry, De Niro's Game is an explosive portrait of life in a war zone, and a powerful meditation on what comes after.
Review
"[A] stunning first novel yielding a totally fresh perspective on war-torn Beirut....Both terse and lyrical, Hage's narrative is a wonder, alternately referencing modern American action heroes and ancient Arabic imagery. The blend of the two is as startling as it is beautiful." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"[T]he language, restless, enervated, slides from blunt and colorless to the candenced, figuring [the protagonist's] world's endless cycle of revolution and despair....Remarkable." Los Angeles Times
Review
"[A] shattering vision....Hage...brings a fierce poetic originality to a tragically familiar story...Hollywood noir meets opium dreams in a blasted landscape of war-wasted young lives." The Boston Globe
Review
"Rawi Hage's debut novel burns with a white-hot brilliance....With rhythms and imagery reminiscent of epic Arabic poetry, Hage lays bare the chaos that war unleashes in the souls of those who must live in its maelstrom." The Charlotte Observer
Review
"[A] striking debut....Straddling the line between literary and genre fiction, Hage's exhilarating prose depicts war-torn Lebanon during the 1980s and his young protagonists' dark and dreamy obsession with American movies..." The San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"Hage's style is hallucinatory, and as you read and reread his gorgeous, grandiose, melancholy catalogs of destruction, you'll find it hard not to think of the fevered dream of Howl." The Village Voice
Synopsis
In this explosive, captivating portrait of life in a war zone, two young men must choose their futures: to stay in the war-torn Beirut and consolidate power through crime, or to go into exile abroad, alienated from the only existence they have known.
About the Author
Rawi Hage was born in Beirut and lived through nine years of the Lebanese civil war. In 1992 he moved to New York City, working there for several months before emigrating to Canada, where he has lived ever since. He is a writer, a visual artist, and a curator. His writings have appeared in Fuse, Mizna, Jouvert, The Toronto Review, Montreal Serai, and Al-Jadid. His visual works have been shown in galleries and museums around the world. He resides in Montreal.