Beirut, 1982, at the outbreak of the second Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and the young French activist George has been tasked by his old friend Samuel – a Greek Jewish resistance fighter and theatre director – with staging a performance of Jean Anouilh’s Antigone in the Lebanese city.

With a cast composed of those on all sides – Palestinian, Christian, Druze, Jewish, Shiite, Sunni, Chaldean and Armenian – and a stage caught amid the chaos and destruction of the approaching war, George and Sam hope that this radical act of art may spark the beginnings of peace and reconciliation. Their aspirations, however, are soon confronted by the brutal realities of the conflict and the true price of violence.

Profound, harrowing and as urgently relevant as ever, The Fourth Wall is a stunning literary novel, informed by the author’s own experiences as a journalist in the Middle East.

Winner of the Prix Goncourt des lycéens and le Choix de l'Orient.