Elias Khoury talked about his novel Gate of the Sun: Bab al-Shams, first published in 1998 in Arabic. The translation by Humphrey Davies was published by Archipelago Books. In his novel, Professor Khoury presents the history of the Palestinian people since the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, which resulted in the expulsion of an estimated 700,000 Palestinians from their homes. During the event, he talked about how he gathered the factual information presented in his novel and the importance of presenting history in the form of literature. Professor Khoury answered questions from members of the audience following his remarks.

This lecture was part of the UC Irvine Difficult Dialogues project to develop courses designed to educate students about contemporary issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, traditions of religious conflict and religious tolerance, and peace building. Difficult Dialogues co-sponsors were: MESSI/Levantine Center LA-OC, History/SAS.