On August 4, 2020, a massive explosion in the Beirut port decimated much of the capital city. The notoriously corrupt and criminally negligent Lebanese government was nowhere to be found. Instead, ordinary people were forced to fend for themselves in extraordinary situations.

They took on the monumental cleanup effort on ground zero. They set up makeshift online resources to find loved ones in hospitals that were overwhelmed. They pulled strangers out of the rubble, regardless of their religion or ethnicity. They set up mental health lines, launched missing persons platforms. They took care of neighbors and comforted one another through tragic losses.

This book is an anthology of creative nonfiction that chronicles their real stories as told by the writers who interviewed them. More than individual accounts, these stories are the product of a collective writing process to archive history and continue to resist injustice.

100% of the royalties will be donated to support victims of the explosion.