Water on Fire: A Memoir of War

El-Ariss’s (Middle Eastern studies, Dartmouth College; Leaks, Hacks, and Scandals) memoir is deeply moving. Growing up in war-torn Lebanon during its 15-year-long (1975–1990) civil war, he and his family were constantly bombarded with many dangers as they tried to survive on a daily basis. In spite of the war, however, he still attended school and vacationed with his family in England, with the war a constant presence around them. He spent some time in the Côte d’Ivoire to avoid being conscripted, attended college at the American University of Beirut, and ultimately moved to the United States to complete his graduate education. Occasionally, the book’s prose digresses to offer readers brief history lessons on Lebanon and Syria, but these parts give context to the events in his own life. He tells his story in a roughly chronological fashion, but he also intersperses it with episodes from his adult life. The entire memoir is framed around his recognition as an adult that he needed therapy to address the trauma of growing up surrounded by violence.