al-Ḥayāt allatī Lam Taʿishhā Āmāl Arabic 2024

al-Ḥayāt allatī Lam Taʿishhā Āmāl (The Life Āmāl Never Lived) is a deeply introspective Lebanese novel by Mirnā Dibs, published in 2025 by Sameh Publishing. Spanning 308 pages, the story follows Āmāl, a woman in her sixties, as she confronts the emotional wreckage of a life shaped by silence, duty, and suppressed desire. Set in Beirut, the novel unfolds through a series of letters, unsent diary entries, and imagined conversations with her younger self. Āmāl reflects on: Her unfulfilled artistic ambitions, buried beneath family expectations A secret love affair with a Palestinian poet during the civil war The loss of her sister, whose rebellious spirit haunts her choices The tension between personal freedom and cultural loyalty The narrative is lyrical and nonlinear, blending stream-of-consciousness, fragmented memory, and poetic prose. It’s a meditation on the lives women lead in the shadows of history—and the quiet revolutions that unfold within.