With empathy, tenderness, and pain, Elias Khoury tells the tragedy of the Lebanese Civil War through the eyes and lives of five Beirutis. Khalil Ahmed Jaber is found dead in a refuse heap, and we follow a journalist investigating the crime. We learn about Khalil from his widow, an engineer, a concierge, the garbage collector who discovered his body, and a doctor. Beirut itself is also a transfigured victim, buried in the rubble of violence, destruction, and inhumanity.Elias Khoury 's Gate of the Sun (deemed a "masterwork" by The New York Times ) was a 2006 New York Times Notable book and was named Best Book of the Year by both The Christian Science Monitor and the San Francisco Chronicle . His Yalo inspired the Los Angeles Times to assert that "the beautiful, resilient city of Beirut belongs to Khoury."