The Arsonists' City

The novel opens during the Lebanese Civil War. Zakaria, a young Palestinian man living in a Beirut refugee camp, is taken from his home by armed men. Years earlier, Zakaria, his best friend Idris, and others beat a young Maronite (Lebanese Christian) man at a wartime checkpoint; the man later died, and his brother has tracked Zakaria down. Zakaria walks out rather than let his family witness what comes next. They stab him three times. He dies hearing his mother call his name.

The story shifts to the present. Ava Nasr Finch, the eldest sibling at 40, is a biology professor in Brooklyn whose marriage to Nate, a consultant, is strained by her discovery of flirtatious emails between him and a coworker named Emily. When Ava's mother, Mazna, calls to announce that Ava's father, Idris Nasr, a heart surgeon in California, plans to sell the family house in Beirut following his own father's death, Ava resists. Mazna claims the children must sign the deed but later confesses this was a lie: She does not want to go to Beirut alone. Moved by her mother's vulnerability, Ava agrees. Meanwhile, Nate tells Ava his boss may send him to Portland for two months.

In Austin, Ava's brother Marwan "Mimi" Nasr, 35, manages a restaurant while clinging to his band, Dulcet, which has never broken through. His girlfriend, Harper, is a successful music agent whom Mazna has never accepted. After a gig, Mimi kisses his bassist; his drummer witnesses it, and the band falls apart. Consumed with guilt, Mimi tells Harper he wants to go to Beirut.

The youngest sibling, Najla "Naj" Nasr, 29, is a celebrated musician in Beirut, one half of the duo Noja with her bandmate Jo. She is secretly gay. At an art exhibition, she reconnects with Fikriya "Fee," her college girlfriend from the American University of Beirut, now married and working as a visual artist. Their reunion is tense and tender.

The narrative reaches into Mazna's past. At 10, growing up in Damascus, she watched a traveling troupe perform Macbeth and discovered her passion for acting. At 17, a classmate sexually assaulted her after a performance, leaving her with the damaging belief that her body's involuntary response made the sin hers.

By 23, Mazna was performing in plays directed by Tarek Haddad, a Lebanese émigré whose brother was killed in the same retaliatory violence described in the prologue. Idris visited Damascus, saw the plays, and fell for Mazna, who found him endearing but unexciting. On trips to Beirut, she met Zakaria at a bakery. He was Palestinian, the son of the family's former housekeeper, raised alongside Idris as a near-brother. Mazna was drawn to him, and on a visit when Idris fell ill, she and Zakaria confessed their feelings and made love. When Idris discovered the relationship and confronted Zakaria, Zakaria returned to the camps and was murdered six days later. Mazna spent weeks bedridden with grief. Idris arrived at her family home, newly accepted to a surgical residency in California, and proposed. Mazna, feeling she had no alternative, said yes.

In the present, the family converges on the Beirut house, maintained by Merry, the longtime maid. A brash real estate agent named Mirabel pushes renovations, uniting the family against her. While sorting old photographs, the siblings find pictures of an unidentified woman. Then Hayat, an elderly Palestinian acquaintance of the family, appears at the house, saying she missed the funeral. Mazna turns pale at the name. Ava becomes fixated on Hayat's identity.

The historical timeline resumes with Mazna and Idris's arrival in Blythe, California. Mazna was isolated and miserable. She discovered she was pregnant, and the math revealed the father was Zakaria. She named the girl Ava. Over the years, Mazna found work at a greenhouse and secretly auditioned for film roles. She landed an audition for a bilingual part, but when the director called to offer it, Idris answered and told him Mazna had returned to Damascus, destroying her chance. Mazna discovered the sabotage years later and stopped speaking to Idris for seven months. After the death of Idris's mother, Hana, they grieved together and Mazna's anger softened, though she vowed never to return to Beirut.

Back in the present, the family discovers a VHS tape from July 1978 showing their young mother with Idris and a handsome stranger. Mazna screams for them to stop the tape. Sara, Idris's sister, later confirms the man was Zakaria and reveals his death. Tensions escalate: Harper confronts Mazna for ignoring her, Mazna pays a fortuneteller to tell Harper she is with the wrong man, and Mimi accidentally starts a fire in Naj's apartment. Naj sits for Fee's painting series and learns Fee has been granted asylum in Norway and will leave at summer's end.

The night before the memorial, Ava calls Nate's Portland hotel room and a woman answers. Devastated, she goes out with her siblings. Under the influence of ecstasy, she kisses Jo on a street corner. In a fight outside a club, Naj comes out as gay, and her siblings embrace her. Ava connects dates: The tape is from July 1978, she was born in April 1979, and her parents married in September 1978. She is Zakaria's biological daughter.

At dawn, Ava drives to the camps and finds Hayat. Sara is already there. Sara confirms she followed Mazna to the bakery and saw her with Zakaria, then told Idris only about a kiss, triggering the fight that sent Zakaria to his death. Sara has known about Ava's parentage since birth but insists Idris never knew. Hayat tells Ava she could see Zakaria in Ava's resemblance to Hayat's own dead sister, Halma. Ava calls Nate, who confesses he never went to Portland. There was no affair; he stayed in Brooklyn all summer, too exhausted to admit he needed a break from their family life. They cry together and begin to talk honestly.

At the memorial, Hayat arrives. Idris sees her, calls out "Albi" ("my heart"), and collapses from a heart attack. Doctors diagnose a minor infarction. Sara stays overnight, and she and Idris reach a truce: The house will not be sold. In the hospital hallway, Hayat cradles Mazna's face and tells her she has as much to forgive as anyone. Mazna weeps in Hayat's arms.

Noja plays its biggest Beirut show, and Naj calls Mimi onstage for a cathartic guitar performance. During the concert, Mimi envisions his future: not music but a restaurant in Austin serving simple Arabic food. Harper flies home, and Mimi asks for the engagement ring back so he can propose properly. Ava decides to stay in Beirut for the fall semester, her marriage's future uncertain. Naj resolves to leave for Los Angeles.

In a final scene, Idris sits alone on the veranda, carrying his own secret: He noticed Ava's dimple as an infant, a trait neither he nor Mazna possesses. He recognized it as Zakaria's. He has known since she was a baby that Ava is not biologically his, and he chose silence, understanding the dimple as a settling of debts. He whispers an apology to Zakaria and the city, then lets it go.