It’s bustling 1960s Beirut, and our young protagonist spends his days in his father and uncle’s bakery, admiring the female customers, observing the many colorful characters, and listening in on fascinating grown-up conversations about everything from jaundice to the occult. The rest of the time he’s off with his friends, learning to smoke and spying on women.
For the men in the bakery, life is starkly different. Working endless shifts in the furious heat of the old bread oven, they fantasize about escape. Mohammed sings all day long in his beautiful tenor voice, while others lean exhausted on sacks of fl our and dream of becoming wrestlers.
When his father acquires the revolutionary new bread-making machine, the workers struggle to adapt to the changed conditions, and one by one their dreams fade into oblivion.
A baker was a baker, not what the government deemed he should be; his messy clothes reflected the messy business of manual labour. The bakery itself reflected this too, with its marble step worn thin from years of customer’s feet.
Hassan Daoud is chief editor of Nawafez, the cultural supplement for Al Mustaqbal in Beirut. His novels include The House of Mathilde and The Penguin’s Song. He lives and works in Beirut.
