More Precious Than Birds is a collection of short stories during the first two years of the Lebanese War 1975- 1978 that had changed the life of many especially of those who have lost dear ones and woke up to an imposed migration in a desperate attempt to search for safety and security. April 13th 1975 is a date to be remembered when ordinary Lebanese citizens living in Beirut East had to face The 1975 Beirut bus massacre, also known as the Ain el-Rammaneh incident and the “Black Sunday”,which was the collective name given to a short series of armed clashes involving Phalangist and Palestinian elements in the streets of central Beirut, which is commonly presented as the spark that set off the Lebanese Civil War in the mid-1970s.

The writer traces back the life of innocent citizens away from political implications and pay tribute to their sacrifices for being the first martyrs of an enigmatic endless war.

Chadia Elhage is a Sydney based Lebanonese journalist, writer, and educator, who is passionate about Arabic culture.