Book Review: Rana Hanna’s Birds in the Rain

A few months ago, I met my dear friend Joumana Rizk over coffee and a quick catch-up. Joumana, who heads Mirros Communications, handed me a manilla envelope with a gift inside. I slipped my hand in and pulled out newly published novel Birds in the Rain by first-time author Rana Hanna. I promised Joumana I’d read it, and boy was it easy to keep that promise (which admittedly is a big ask these days, as I find myself unable to commit to reading books given my frenetic schedule).

Birds in the Rain by Rana Hanna (published by Bold Story Press, 2025)

I inhaled Rana’s book, unable to put it down late-night when I should have been ceding to slumber. Over the course of a few evenings, I followed the narratives of Layla, a young widow grieving her husband’s death as she raises her son Michael. Each chapter is titled by the point of view through which it is narrated, spanning Layla, Michael, Jeddo (Layla’s father and hence Michael’s grandfather), and Marc (a trustworthy friend of Layla who is devoted to her and Michael’s well-being). The book is written in the third-person, except for those chapters narrated by Michael, which are in the first person. Perhaps this is telling that, though there are two candidates for chief protagonist (Layla and Michael), the author intends for this to be genuinely Michael's story.

The novel unfolds during the summer of 2006, at the start of the July war that gripped all of Lebanon. I happened to be in Beirut during this period, visiting from California with my mother and brothers. I remember this unusual time quite vividly. It would be the first episode of war that I live through, confined over five weeks to our house in the northeastern suburbs of Beirut and witness to the terrifying sound of bombs pounding Dahieh. Similarly today, twenty years onward, the war pits the same two parties. But back then we witnessed major infrastructural damage by the perpetrator across the length of Lebanon in an effort to curb any type of movement from north to south.

To return to Birds in the Rain, the main problem is that Michael, a rather mature sixteen-year-old, goes missing, throwing Layla into a frenzy. The novel weaves flashbacks from Layla’s earlier life abroad, in England specifically, first at boarding school where her father sent her after her mother passed away, and then as a pregnant wife whose husband was killed in a mugging on his way home. 

At first, we empathize quite readily with Layla, as she has been victim to one tribulation after another and is trying to navigate life as a single mom and devoted daughter. It can’t be easy, especially in the prying and judgmental eyes of Lebanese society, to unearth her own identity and rear her precious little boy. She meets Marc out on the town where she occasionally seeks escape from her anxieties and validation from the opposite sex vis-a-vis one-night stands. Though she brings Marc home, he catches sight of a bewildered Michael, who is five at the time, and he gentlemanly decides to tuck Layla in and leave without doing the deed.

Over the next decade, Marc of his own volition becomes a grounding force in Layla’s life and a reliable male presence in Michael's. Though he never crosses any boundaries and does not impose, it is clear that both Layla and Michael love and need him. And it is he who spearheads a search for Michael when the teenager disappears.

Jeddo is another gentle male character the reader comes to know. He is unconditionally loving and benevolent, and though Layla blames him for abandoning her in the wake of her mother's death, she eventually realizes that he was trying to act in her best interest. He swooped in throughout Michael’s childhood, modeling a noble father figure who inculcates in him courage, consideration for others, and a breed of softness that underscores confident masculinity.

Throughout the novel, I found myself cozying up to the three male characters – Michael, Marc and Jeddo – while sometimes shirking from Layla’s selfish actions and carelessness. Though she did elicit my sympathy given her challenging circumstances, I expected more from her as a fellow mother wading through the sacrifices motherhood demands.

Happily, the novel ends on an upbeat note – but I won’t spoil it! Without a doubt, author Rana’s foray into novel-writing proves victorious and laudable. I hope to see more literature from her in the future, and secretly, I'd like to pick at her brain over the merits (and demerits) of Layla!

Birds in the Rain can be found in Lebanon at all major booksellers (Librairie Antoine, Virgin Megastore). It is available for purchase on Amazon here.

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