Book Cover Design for A Promise

The first of these concepts for a novel by Antonio Roy was inspired by The Green Line, the line of demarcation in Beirut during the Civil War separating the Muslim factions in West Beirut from the Christians in East Beirut. The line on the cover physically disrupts the typography, breaking the word promise—a reflection of the relationships and divisions within in the story.

The second design uses a minimal graphic approach to represent both the physical and emotion pain encountered by the characters in the novel.

About A Promise

From his tower, the Muezzin calls the faithful to prayers. Every morning, after praying and sipping his hot black tea, Rami, a Muslim of Palestinian descent, goes to work as an apprentice baker in Beirut. His father disappeared when he was only three years old, leaving him with an ill mother and younger sister to take care of. He meets Dalal, a Christian, and the two fall in love for the first time. They each promise to remain faithful to each other until death does them apart.

To their luck, it’s 1975, and Lebanon enters its deadliest civil war to date. The country becomes divided between Christians and Muslims, and in consequence, the two lovers are separated between an invisible line that claimed the lives of many who tried to cross it. Will they dare? Will each of them be able to keep the promise they had made?

A heartbreaking story, A Promise is an emotionally thrilling debut that paints the effect of a civil war on two ordinary lovers who find themselves entrenched in the middle of a conflict they have nothing to do with.