In Büchner's novella, the writer Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz retreats because he can only endure the world upside down. The writer Lenz in Albert Ostermaier's novel escapes from the hustle and bustle. He discovers Beirut, which promises him a solution and an end to his writing and personal crisis. Thus, Lenz wanders through the Lebanese city and finds himself caught in the crossfire. He seeks refuge in ruins and in the twilight, recalling the civil war, scenes he cannot have experienced, nightmares he wanted to escape. In "Lenz in Lebanon," Albert Ostermaier explores in the most terrifying detail the current kaleidoscope of violent explosions: within individual people and among the powerful. The novel narrates, in its bloody reality and the connecting metaphorical exploration, a forward-driving rhythm of everyday life and longings.