A powerful socio-political novel, Nisanit, depicts love, compassion, sacrifice, suffering and lost innocence in an atmosphere of conflict, hatred and oppression. Nisanit‘s three entwined narrative lines show the Arab Israeli conflicts through the eyes of Shadeed, the Palestinian guerrilla fighter; David, his Israeli interrogator; and Iman, the young Arab woman in love with Shadeed. Faith […]
The boy known as Tor Baz – the black falcon – wanders the tribal landscape of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. He meets men who fight under different flags, and women who risk everything if they break their society’s code of honour. Where has he come from, and where will fate take him? ‘Striking. One of […]
When Frances Shore joins her engineer husband in Jeddah she is warned not to ask questions… Bored by days spent gossiping or patrolling with the cockroach spray, she begins to speculate about her neighbours and the empty flat above her. At first she believes the expat – rumours that it is used as a lovers’ […]
Once upon a September in Paris… Still heartsick over the break-up of his relationship with the alluring , elusive novelist Hayat, the narrator of The Dust of Promises finds himself adrift in Paris, where he has come to receive a photography award. His photograph of a traumatised war-orphan has been declared profoundly affecting by the […]
Covered from head to toe, with only her eyes visible, the sight of a Muslim woman on a Western city street rarely fails to provoke a strong reaction. Feelings of shock, horror, repulsion, or even fear, are not uncommon. But have you ever wondered who it is behind the veil, what her life is really […]
Ed Husain’s The Islamist is the shocking inside story of British Islamic fundamentalism, told by a former radical. ‘When I was sixteen I became an Islamic fundamentalist. Five years later, after much emotional turmoil, I rejected fundamentalist teachings and returned to normal life and my family. As I recovered my faith and mind, I tried […]
After a failed study mission in France, Abd al-Rahman returns home to Iraq to launch an existentialist movement akin to that of his hero, Jean-Paul Satre. Meanwhile, his wealth and family prestige guarantee him an idle life spent in drinking, debauchery, and frequenting a well-known nightclub. But soon he is contemplating suicide as an act […]
Built for eternity and radiating an aura of the divine, the pyramids have inspired wonder and fear for millennia. In this gem-like novel, Gamal al-Ghitani uses these enigmatic monuments to evoke the human quest for wisdom and enlightenment. Weaving strands of Sufi mysticism and medieval Islamic history into ancient Egypt’s most enduring symbols, Pyramid Texts […]
SONALLAH IBRAHIM was born in Cairo in 1937. He studied Law then worked as a journalist. He spent five years n prison because of political activities from 1959 until 1964. in 1968 he left Egypt for the Lebanon, and now lives and works in Germany, where some of his short stories have been published. He […]
Three years of war. Two hundred thousand dead. Three million refugees. No end in sight. This is the grim reality of conflict in Syria, one of the great tragedies of the modern era. Analysis and op/ed pieces fill the media, yet many people remain confused. What is this fight about? The Plain Of Dead Cities […]