Layla Tarhini, a 32-year-old Lebanese woman displaced from her home in the southern suburbs of Beirut, known as Dahiyeh, found refuge in literature during the most difficult moments of the bombings. While bombs fell on her community, she sought shelter in historical novels set in distant times and lands, such as the Persian dynasties of the Middle Ages, which mentally transported her to what is now Iran.
Currently, Layla works behind the counter at the Philosophia bookstore in Beirut. Although she has returned to a supposed normalcy, the war remains present in the daily life of the Lebanese capital. On the very street where the bookstore is located, destruction is visible, and the constant buzz of Israeli drones flies over the city.
The article presents literature as a form of cultural resistance in the midst of conflict, showing how books served as escape and comfort for Lebanese people during the attacks, allowing people like Layla to travel mentally to other places and eras while violence ravages her country.
