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Hoda Barakat’s The Kingdom of this Earth turns to the history of Lebanese Maronite Christians, from the Mandate period to shortly before the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in the mid-1970s This scene, occurring very early in the novel, precedes a tragedy that will mark the family at the centre of the story, whose history of village pre-eminence puts them at the centre of local rivalries around class, land ownership, water rights, and gender politics The ancestral past remains part of the present, as the children of Muzawwaq struggle to make their future in a society of close ties and deep rifts   — M B         A shower of wet snow The snowflakes were beginning to stick, forming white patches that spread and thickened across the terrain The horizon line between the greyness of the skies and the white ground was blurred now   The bitter edge of the blustery cold softened as the fog dropped over the land, thick as a felt saddle blanket The mountain paths and ravines were no longer distinguishable, making it impossible to guess how much distance remained ahead Features of the landscape known popularly as the Frenchmen’s Chamber, Deaf-mute’s Crevice, St Severin’s Elbow, the Cross of the Sacred Heart, had all vanished After Patriarch’s Point the entire expanse of these heights was submerged in the sour gummy milk Overhead, winds whirling and pounding as though powerful water currents were ravining the skies changed course suddenly, a fierce onrush whipping across the ground to prevent him moving forward   He got off his horse He pulled the saddlebags of lentils off the horse’s back and tossed them to the ground but he kept the sacks of wheat and hay where they were He opened the blade of his penknife and slashed open a sack of hay, bringing it up to the horse’s head But his beloved horse didn’t plunge her snout into the sack She would not eat Mubaraka, eat! For the love of the Virgin, eat – it will give your legs more strength We don’t have a choice, Mubaraka We have to go on   The horse stared