“Canción”: Eduardo Halfón with a virtuoso pen

VSinvited to Tokyo to speak at a congress of Lebanese authors, Eduardo Halfón uses this stay to talk about his grandfather and the circumstances of his kidnapping by the rebel armed forces in Guatemala. “I had never been to Japan before. And I had never been asked to be a Lebanese writer before, ”he writes in the introduction, as he prepares his disguise.

The thread of his memories brings him back to 1967, in the large family house, which was more of a palace than a simple home, symbol of the success in the business of this grandfather of Syrian origin, but who has always been proclaimed Lebanese upon his arrival in New York. And everything converges on this day when, while returning home, this grandfather who bore the same name as him is kidnapped in front of his home by an armed militia. He will be held 35 days in detention by his captors.