De Niro's Game

A Novel

By: Rawi Hage

Narrated by: Wyntner Woody

Childhood best friends Bassam and George have grown to be men in war-ravaged Beirut. Now they must choose between the only two futures available to them: to stay in the devastated city and consolidate power through crime or to go into exile abroad, alienated from the only existence they have ever known.

Told in a distinctive, captivating voice that fuses vivid cinematic imagery; a page-turning plot; and exquisite, dark poetry De Niro's Game is an explosive portrait of life in a war zone and a powerful meditation on what comes after.

Winner of the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

©2006 Rawi Hage (P)2012 Steerforth Press LLC

Critic reviews

"A remarkable novel" ( Los Angeles Times)

"Hage, himself a Lebanese refugee now living in Canada, brings a fierce poetic originality to a tragically familiar story, evoking Bassam's psychological disintegration in a downpour of hallucinatory imagery: Hollywood noir meets opium dreams in a blasted landscape of war-wasted young lives." ( The Boston Globe)

“This aggressive, prize-winning Canadian import debut recounts the fate of two childhood friends in war-ravaged Beirut. Hage’s energetic prose matches the brutality depicted in the novel without overstating the narrative’s tragic arc - an impressive first outing for Hage.” ( Publishers Weekly, starred review)