Rawi Hage - De Niro's Game

SHABAB: young men

SHAHID: martyr

TANTE: aunt

TWAKKAL ALA ALLAH: Have faith in God

‘UMMAH: nation

‘USTADH: teacher

WOU YALLAH SHID YA BEEBO SHID MITL MA SHAD BAYAK AWWAL LAYLAH: Push, push Beebo, in the same way your father pushed on his wedding night

YA CHIC INTA: handsome

YA HABBUB: a term of endearment

YA IKHWAT AL-SHARMUTA: brothers of bitches

YA KALB: dog

YA KHALTI: my aunty

YA ’UM AL-NUR: Mother of Light

YA WLAD AL-SHARMUTA: sons of bitches

YALLAH, KASSAK: cheers

YASSAREH: leftist

ZAJAL: a form of improvised dialect poetry

ZAKHIRAH: a piece of wood the Lebanese Christians believe originated from Jesus’ cross

ZU’RAN: thugs

I WOULD LIKE to thank the Canada Council and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec for their support. I also would like to thank Lisa Mills for her presence, friendship, and support during the writing of this book and after. Thanks to John Asfour for his friendship and much-appreciated guidance. To my publisher Lynn Henry, and all the people at Anansi, and to Martha Sharpe for acquiring the manuscript and for ongoing support. Thanks to my brothers and family: Mark, Merdad, Ralph, Gigi, and Ramzi. A special thanks to: Dima Ayoub, Leila Bdeir, Laurence Cailbeaux and Jesh Hanspal, Nick Chbat, Tina Diab, Jocelyn Doray, Julia Dover, Eva Elias, Majdi ElOmari, Erin George, Kathryn Haddad, Mansour Harik, Nasrin Himada and Raphaelle Beaulieu, Magdalona Gombos, Aida Kaouk, Sandra Khoury, Johanna Manley, Ramzi Moufarej, Nehal Nassif, Maire Noonan and Antoine Boustros, Milosz Rowicki, Babak Salari, Julian Samuels, Pascale Solon, Laurelle Sprengelmeyer, and Shannon Walsh.

Any resemblance of characters in this novel to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

RAWI HAGE was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and lived through nine years of the Lebanese civil war. He immigrated to Canada in 1992. He is an award-winning writer, visual artist, curator, and political commentator. His writing has appeared in Maclean’s, Fuse, Mizna, Jouvert, The Toronto Review, Montreal Serai , and Al-Jadid . His visual work has been shown in galleries and museums around the world. His second novel, Cockroach , will be published by House of Anansi Press in 2008.

House of Anansi Press was founded in 1967 with a mandate to publish Canadian-authored books, a mandate that continues to this day even as the list has branched out to include internationally acclaimed thinkers and writers. The press immediately gained attention for significant titles by notable writers such as Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, George Grant, and Northrop Frye. Since then, Anansi’s commitment to finding, publishing and promoting challenging, excellent writing has won it tremendous acclaim and solid staying power. Today Anansi is Canada’s pre-eminent independent press, and home to nationally and internationally bestselling and acclaimed authors such as Gil Adamson, Margaret Atwood, Ken Babstock, Peter Behrens, Rawi Hage, Misha Glenny, Jim Harrison, A. L. Kennedy, Pasha Malla, Lisa Moore, A. F. Moritz, Eric Siblin, Karen Solie, and Ronald Wright. Anansi is also proud to publish the award-winning nonfiction series The CBC Massey Lectures. In 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011 Anansi was honoured by the Canadian Booksellers Association as “Publisher of the Year.”