Nonfiction for Social Change

A Beirut Heart

One Woman’s War

By Cathy Sultan

Winner, Book USA’s Best Books of 2006 Autobiography Award

“Sultan writes a compelling story of survival …. This is a must-read for everyone with any interest in what happens to a family under siege.”
– Colleen McElroy, Professor of English, University of Seattle

A Beirut Heart recounts Cathy Sultan’s fourteen years as an American living in Beirut—with the last eight years taking place during the brutal and destructive fighting in the city she loved. Even after a bullet pierced her apron that hung in the kitchen, she remained determined to provide support for her Lebanese physician husband and comfort for her two small children, often relying on the gentle art of cooking to calm shattered nerves. This is a war story from the perspective of a wife and mother.

“There is nothing like an intelligent woman, spouse and mother of small children to carry one into the midst of war, with its horrors as well as its capacity for soul-building …. Her narrative enfleshes our disjointed ‘news’ of the Middle East.”
– David Burrell, Professor in Philosophy and Theology, University of Notre Dame; and Director, Tantur Ecumenical Institute, Jerusalem

“Ms. Sultan’s story demonstrates the biological imperative that drives the human spirit when we must function and persevere in unthinkable circumstances.”
– Donald Mash, Former Chancellor, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire

“This unique narrative places us inside something we seldom think about: the domestic element of civil war.”
– Ian Graham Leask, host of KFAI’s “Write on Radio,” and author of The Wounded and Other Stories About Sons and Fathers

Cathy Sultan is also the author of Israeli and Palestinian Voices: A Dialogue with Both Sides (Scarletta Press, 2006) and Tragedy in South Lebanon: The Israeli-Hezbollah War of 2006 (Scarletta Press, 2008). She currently lives in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and sits on the Executive Board of the National Peace Foundation. www.cathysultan.com/cms