Set against the backdrop of a fractured Beirut, the novel follows Raja, a sixty-three-year-old gay high school philosophy teacher who lives with his domineering, eighty-five-year-old mother, Zalfa. Raja’s life is defined by quiet resignation and the ghosts of the Lebanese Civil War until he receives a life-altering invitation to a writing residency in the United States. This “stroke of luck” serves as the catalyst for a sprawling, non-linear narrative that jumps between Raja’s childhood, his survival through decades of conflict, the devastating 2020 Beirut port explosion, and his complex, often hilarious, and heartbreaking relationship with his mother. The story is a masterful exploration of memory, the weight of history, and the endurance of the human spirit in the face of national and personal tragedy.