Car Bomb Dept: Nakhle Karam, Niko for short, was born in Lebanon in 1977, two years into the Lebanese civil war. As Niko grows to schoolage, his parents, Antoine and lise, watch helplessly as the fighting intensifies and many of their friends and family members leave the country. But Antoine and lise are optimists; they make the tragic mistake of hanging on too long, according to Montreal Gazette. Then, when Niko is 6 years old, his mother is killed when a car bomb explodes next to her. She had been pregnant with Niko's brother or sister, and had been telling Niko he has to be good if he wants to meet his "new friend." When the mother and baby are killed, Niko blames himself and a seed of bitterness is planted that will grow inside him all his life and every immigrant to CanadA has a story, often of hardship. But the story told in Niko, a novel by Montreal's Dimitri Nasrallah, is a mesmerizing and sometimes tall tale, one that will charm all who know, or care to learn, what it really means to leave home and family behind and start from scratch in a new country. First, Antoine's camera shop is destroyed by a bomb. Gradually, the street violence escalates and they can rarely leave their apartment. As
reported in the news.
@t lebanese civil war, street violence
23.4.11