Hage's sombre coming-of-age story, recent winner of the Impac prize, is set during the Lebanese civil war and is narrated by Bassam, whose family lives in the Christian quarter of Beirut. Here, Bassam and his best friend George - nicknamed De Niro because of his fondness for playing Russian roulette, like Robert De Niro in The Deer Hunter - ride around on motorcycles, chase girls and dream of escaping to Rome, or America, while around them the bombs keep falling.

But then George falls under the influence of a local crime lord, and soon persuades Bassam to join the drug-dealing ring that his boss controls. Bassam justifies this by telling himself that he needs the money to fund his escape, although he is increasingly disturbed by George's violent and erratic behaviour. After the death of his parents, when the family's apartment building is hit by a bomb, Bassam becomes more determined to leave Beirut, even though this will mean breaking off his burgeoning relationship with the alluring Rana.

But it is not until he finds himself implicated in a murder he did not commit that he realises that his days in the city are numbered. Arriving in Paris, he hopes to find refuge from the horrors. But an encounter with George's beautiful half-sister Rhea shows him that the past is not so easily shaken off. The author, who now lives in Canada, has drawn on his own experiences of growing up in Lebanon for this compelling tale of betrayal and revenge.

De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage
Old Street, £7.99 Buy the book here

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