Message in a Shell, by Ghazi Kaddouh
“Message in a Shell” by Ghazi Kaddouh is a compelling thriller novel that follows Sami Badroni, a friend and smuggling partner for a high-ranking Palestine Liberation Organization official in Beirut, during the civil war in Lebanon. After saving a woman from the grasps of his friend’s number one competitor named Murad, Sami finds himself with a huge target on his back. Murad and his team implicate him for the murder of two Mossad agents. Sami must clear his name and finds himself fleeing his homeland. During all of this, Sami falls in love with a woman named Lena. He later finds out that she was hired by Murad’s associates as a spy. Sami finds himself both betrayed and heartbroken by the actions of Lena; however, in the end, she secretly is the force that helps him flee the claws of Murad and is the mother of his child. Inspired by real-life events that the author has witnessed, this novel illustrates the death, destruction and divide caused by the war.
