“Your story about Gibran transported me in time to those school days reading and tasting his sensitivity and creativity.”

Lina

“Hanna’s love story with the attractive blind girl is a pure delight! I could imagine myself walking along in their company.”

Georges

“You take me to a time when everything is still innocent, a place where all is well, people are decent and kids are kids.”

Reem

“Each story is compelling and had me gripped from start to finish.”

Fanny

“John McCarthy has written an engaging series of vignettes set in Beirut and Lebanon. Told through the eyes of a teenage boy, the stories (written in Arabic and English, and thus ideal for anyone studying either language) capture the dreams and aspirations of someone coming-of-age in a city that can be gregarious and difficult to understand. But with John McCarthy’s skillful pen as our guide, we are taken on a delightful tour across lands that John himself knew as a student. It’s a worthy achievement, told succinctly, that captures both interior and exterior lives.”

Matthew Stevenson, writer and author
www.matthewmstevenson.com

“Your story 'Hanna learns how to prepare a meal' is beautifully written and for sure, tomorrow I’ll be making a delicious Moujaddara as your words have enticed me to. Many congratulations on this wonderful book. I am in awe of your perfect Arabic.”

Nada Saleh
Author of “Fragrance of the Earth - Lebanese Home Cooking” & “Seductive Flavours of the Levant - Traditional Home Cooking from Lebanon, Syria and Turkey”