"What is a hakawati, you ask?
Ah, listen.

A Hakawati is a teller of tales, myths and fables. (hekayat) A storyteller, an entertainer. A troubadour of sorts, someone who earns his keep by beguiling an audience with yarns. Like the word "hekayeh" (story, fable, news) "hakawati" is derived from the Lebanese word "haki" which means "talk" or "conversaion". This suggest that in Lebanese the mere act of talking is storytelling.

A great hawawati grows rich, and a bad one sleeps hungry or headless. In the old days, villages had their own hakawatis, but great ones left their homes to earn fortunes. In the cities, cafes were the hakawatis's domain. A hakawati can tell a tale in one sitting or spin the same tale over a period of months, impregnating it with nightly cliffhangers."

- Rabih Alalameddine, The Hakawati, 2008.