Twenty Lost Years — Hanna A. Saadah

The Unsung Heroes Of Humanity Ordinary people have always been and always will be the greatest majority of earth's population and the prime movers of all life upon it. Their stories, those unsung poems of humanity, have more to teach us than those of the few exceptional persons, consecrated to fame with historical accounts and autobiographies. For every storied maverick, there are millions of un-storied plebs whose silent seeds blossom in the lush gardens of humanity. To those unacknowledged, misunderstood, used, and abused human masses belongs our exceptional hero, the town's red-eyed drunk, Mr. Aziz Mitran. To him and the millions like him who have suffered and continue to suffer, who were blamed and continue to be blamed, and who, had they been crowned by fame, would have been regarded as most exceptional, I dedicate this work. The story takes place in the first half of the twentieth century in Lebanon, Syria, and France. The romance is between a struggling Christian runaway and a veiled, sheltered Muslim girl. Child abuse and its consequences frame the novel. The Second World War and the French Mandate create massive waves of unrest in the local population. Children at play begin the novel by interacting with the town's erudite drunk, who helps and protects them. They then tell his story after discovering and rewriting his diary.