What Will Survive — Joan Smith

July 1997: Lebanon makes the British headlines when an Englishwoman dies in a landmine explosion near the town of Nabatiyeh.



The dead woman is Aisha, a former model with an Egyptian mother, visiting the Middle East for the first time. Reporters descend on her Somerset home, linking her death with Princess Diana's high profile campaign for a ban on landmines. Amanda, a young features writer, is sent to Beirut to write a human interest story about Aisha's death. There she finds a city only just recovering from more than a decade of civil war. Lebanon is still occupied by Israel in the south, prompting a bloody conflict with Hezbollah, and she realises that thousands of ordinary Lebanese are trapped between two ruthless enemies. She begins to suspect that Aisha may have been another victim of this forgotten war. But with a wayward princess and a charismatic new prime minister making headlines at home, how can she make sure that justice is done for Aisha - and for Lebanon?