When I Lived in Modern Times
20 May '14
Amazon Review In April 1946, Evelyn Sert, a 20-year-old East End London hairdresser, sets out for Palestine. “This is my story”, she writes, “Scratch a Jew and you’ve got a story.” Evelyn’s story in Linda Grant’s When I Lived in Modern Times is no less complicated than that of any other displaced European Jew in the post-war […]
Khirbet Khizeh
20 May '14
Review `Extraordinary … a tribute to the power of critical thought to register the injustices of history’ –Guardian ‘Exhilarating … How often can you say of a harrowing, unquiet book that it makes you wrestle with your soul’ –The Times ‘A mesmerising and prophetic testimony that unfolds with a magnificent, biblical simplicity’ –Independent `Poetic, anguished […]
Corsair, The
29 January '14
It’s the early part of the nineteenth century and the Arabian Peninsula and the waters surrounding it are ablaze. Piracy in the Gulf threatens global maritime trade routes while the Wahabbi strain of Islam is conquering followers town by town across the region. Britain, eager to reinforce its presence in the Middle East and protect […]
Nostalgia
29 January '14
Almond Tree, The
29 January '14
This beautifully written and compelling novel is a tale of two Palestinian brothers, one full of anger and hate, the other trying to build a bridge through scientific endeavour. The book vividly brings to life the everyday experiences of Palestinians displaced by the Israeli occupation. The first person narrative draws the reader into the story […]
King
29 January '14
A prince in pre-Islamic Arabia must leave his carefree life to avenge the murder of his father by a rival Arab tribe allied to Persia. Betrayed from within and without, he travels to Constantinople, the ‘New Rome’, where, at the imperial court of Justinian and Theodora, he pleads for political and military support Presenting a […]
Endings
29 January '14
The late Saudi novelist Munif (1933 – 2004) sets this timeless tale within an Arabic desert village struck by drought and doomed by the thoughtlessness of its inhabitants. Told in the omniscient voice of a storyteller familiar with this ancient land and its people, the tale involves a hunter from the village of al-Tiba, ‘Assaf, […]
Lady From Tel Aviv, The
29 January '14
Walid Dahman is going home. Returning to Gaza after nearly four decades in exile, he looks forward to embracing his mother and reconnecting with the people and places he once left behind. Boarding the flight from London, Walid s life intersects with Dana, an Israeli actress, on her way back to Tel Aviv. As the […]