New Releases by Rabih Alameddine

From National Book Award finalist and winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction comes a tragicomic love story set in Lebanon, a modern saga of family, memory, and the unbreakable attachment of a son and his mother In a tiny Beirut apartment, sixty-three-year-old Raja and his mother live side by side. A beloved high school philosophy teacher and ''the neighborhood homosexual,'' Raja relishes books, meditative walks, order, and solitude. Zalfa, his octogenarian mother, views her son''s desire for privacy as a personal affront. She demands to know every detail of Raja''s work life and love life, boundaries be damned. When Raja receives an invite to an all-expenses-paid writing residency in America, the timing couldn''t be better. It arrives on the heels of a series of personal and national disasters that have left Raja longing for peace and quiet away from his mother and the heartache of Lebanon. But what at first seems a stroke of good fortune soon leads Raja to recount and relive the very disasters and past betrayals he wishes to forget. Told in Raja''s irresistible and wickedly funny voice, the novel dances across six decades to tell the unforgettable story of a singular life and its absurdities - a tale of mistakes, self-discovery, trauma, and maybe even forgiveness. Above all, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) is a wildly unique and sparkling celebration of love.

A timely and urgent inquiry by one of global literature''s leading lights In this concisely argued and illuminating book, the PEN/Faulkner Award–winning author Rabih Alameddine takes the subject of politics and art head-on, questioning the very premise of dividing these two pillars of culture into an either/or proposition. He reveals how a political dimension enlarges a work of art rather than making it less beautiful or reducing it to a polemic, as we are so often and carelessly taught. But he also ponders what makes art political to begin with: how essential is the artist’s conscious political intent, and what does the reader or viewer contribute to the work’s political capability or significance? In exploring these questions, Alameddine engages intensely with his role as an immigrant and a gay author writing inside a globally dominant, often oblivious culture, and invokes the work of numerous writers, from Tayeb Salih and Aleksandar Hemon to Teju Cole and Salman Rushdie, who also struggle to be heard as something more than an “other.” The book features throughout Alameddine’s brilliantly relatable voice—shrewd, humorous, challenging, and as honest about his own limitations as he is about his passions.

Mina Simpson è una dottoressa di origine siriana che vive e lavora da molti anni negli Stati Uniti. Quando la sua amica Emma le chiede di raggiungerla con urgenza a Lesbo per collaborare con la sua ONG nell’emergenza rifugiati, decide di accettare. Una settimana lontana dai suoi impegni, da Chicago e dalla moglie, e l’occasione di fare qualcosa di buono per gli altri le paiono motivi sufficienti. Oltretutto da anni non è stata così vicina alla sua terra natale, ossia da quando ha deciso di non nascondere più la sua natura, e di andarsene per essere sé stessa, una donna nata in un corpo d’uomo. La sua famiglia l’ha rinnegata e con loro ha perso ogni contatto, tranne che con Mazen, l’adorato fratello con cui è cresciuta e il viaggio a Lesbo diventa un’occasione per ritrovarsi. Tra i profughi che Mina incontra sull’isola c’è anche Sumaiya, una madre di famiglia, forte e decisa, ma anche molto malata, che non vuole rivelare la sua condizione per proteggere i propri cari. Tra lei e la dottoressa nasce un legame particolare che porta Mina a dover fare i conti con la realtà della tragedia dei rifugiati, obbligati ad abbandonare la loro terra, proprio com’era successo a lei. Rabih Alameddine racconta una delle grandi questioni irrisolte del nostro tempo con uno sguardo acuto e ironico, dando vita a una serie di personaggi sfaccettati, tragici e divertenti, e a una protagonista, Mina Simpson, assolutamente indimenticabile.

L''auteur du prix Femina étranger 2016 revient avec un roman brillant et terriblement actuel. " C''est toi qui as suggéré que j''écrive ça. Toi, l''écrivain, tu n''as pas pu. Tu as essayé d''écrire l''histoire du réfugié. Plusieurs fois, à de nombreuses reprises. Tu as échoué. Et échoué encore. Peut-être échoué mieux. Il n''empêche, tu n''as pas pu. Plus de deux ans après que nous nous sommes rencontrés à Lesbos, tu essayais encore. Tu t''y es attaqué par un versant, puis par un autre, en vain. Tu étais trop impliqué, incapable de te dépêtrer toi-même de l''histoire. Tu as dit que tu n''arrivais pas à trouver la bonne distance. Tu n''étais pas capable de trouver les mots justes, même après nombre de séances sur le canapé de ton psychiatre. " [...] Et quoi que tu fasses, as-tu dit, ne l''intitule pas Lesbienne libanaise à Lesbos, je t''en supplie. " Une plongée bouleversante au cœur d''un drame humanitaire où se croisent les destins singuliers d''esprits rebelles qui ont en commun l''exil, la perte et l''espoir. Au centre vide de tout horizon figure dans la liste du Pen Faulkner Award, le plus prestigieux des prix littéraires américains Rabih Alameddine remporte le prix PEN/Faulkner de la Fiction 2022 pour ce roman. le plus prestigieux des prix littéraires américains.

WINNER OF THE 2022 PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FOR FICTION By National Book Award and the National Book Critics'' Circle Award finalist for An Unnecessary Woman, Rabih Alameddine, comes a transporting new novel about an Arab American trans woman''s journey among Syrian refugees on Lesbos island. Mina Simpson, a Lebanese doctor, arrives at the infamous Moria refugee camp on Lesbos, Greece, after being urgently summoned for help by her friend who runs an NGO there. Alienated from her family except for her beloved brother, Mina has avoided being so close to her homeland for decades. But with a week off work and apart from her wife of thirty years, Mina hopes to accomplish something meaningful, among the abundance of Western volunteers who pose for selfies with beached dinghies and the camp''s children. Soon, a boat crosses bringing Sumaiya, a fiercely resolute Syrian matriarch with terminal liver cancer. Determined to protect her children and husband at all costs, Sumaiya refuses to alert her family to her diagnosis. Bonded together by Sumaiya''s secret, a deep connection sparks between the two women, and as Mina prepares a course of treatment with the limited resources on hand, she confronts the circumstances of the migrants'' displacement, as well as her own constraints in helping them. Not since the inimitable Aaliya of An Unnecessary Woman has Rabih Alameddine conjured such a winsome heroine to lead us to one of the most wrenching conflicts of our time. Cunningly weaving in stories of other refugees into Mina''s singular own, The Wrong End of the Telescope is a bedazzling tapestry of both tragic and amusing portraits of indomitable spirits facing a humanitarian crisis.

The American Civil Liberties Union partners with award-winning authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman in this “forceful, beautifully written” (Associated Press) collection that brings together many of our greatest living writers, each contributing an original piece inspired by a historic ACLU case. On January 19, 1920, a small group of idealists and visionaries, including Helen Keller, Jane Addams, Roger Baldwin, and Crystal Eastman, founded the American Civil Liberties Union. A century after its creation, the ACLU remains the nation’s premier defender of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. In collaboration with the ACLU, authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman have curated an anthology of essays “full of struggle, emotion, fear, resilience, hope, and triumph” (Los Angeles Review of Books) about landmark cases in the organization’s one-hundred-year history. Fight of the Century takes you inside the trials and the stories that have shaped modern life. Some of the most prominent cases that the ACLU has been involved in—Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, Miranda v. Arizona—need little introduction. Others you may never even have heard of, yet their outcomes quietly defined the world we live in now. Familiar or little-known, each case springs to vivid life in the hands of the acclaimed writers who dive into the history, narrate their personal experiences, and debate the questions at the heart of each issue. Hector Tobar introduces us to Ernesto Miranda, the felon whose wrongful conviction inspired the now-iconic Miranda rights—which the police would later read to the man suspected of killing him. Yaa Gyasi confronts the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, in which the ACLU submitted a friend of- the-court brief questioning why a nation that has sent men to the moon still has public schools so unequal that they may as well be on different planets. True to the ACLU’s spirit of principled dissent, Scott Turow offers a blistering critique of the ACLU’s stance on campaign finance. These powerful stories, along with essays from Neil Gaiman, Meg Wolitzer, Salman Rushdie, Ann Patchett, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Louise Erdrich, George Saunders, and many more, remind us that the issues the ACLU has engaged over the past one hundred years remain as vital as ever today, and that we can never take our liberties for granted. Chabon and Waldman are donating their advance to the ACLU and the contributors are forgoing payment.

''In this delightful novel, Alameddine takes his greatest risks yet, and succeeds brilliantly, in a work that while marked by radical formal innovation, manages to be warm, sad, funny and moving'' Michael Chabon Named by her grandfather after ''the Divine'' Sarah Bernhardt, Sarah Nour El-Din grows up in Beirut against the tense background of civil war. But the young Sarah finds pleasure in the everyday - her first cigarette, first kiss, seeking revenge on her tight-lipped stepmother. Then, with adulthood, comes an awareness of the fragility of life. After two failed marriages, the loss of her son, the death of one sister and the imprisonment of another, Sarah begins to tell her story. But this story is not so easy to tell. A novel written entirely in first chapters, I, THE DIVINE is an honest and touching story of one woman''s struggle to come to terms with her past.

Jakob, Mitte 50, sitzt im Wartezimmer einer Nervenklinik und bittet um Aufnahme. Er erlebt die Welt als eine einzige Katastrophe: Zwanzig Jahre ist es her, dass sein gesamter Freundeskreis der Aids-Epidemie zum Opfer fiel. Dieser Verlust hat einen Schmerz hinterlassen, der sich in jeden Winkel seiner Persönlichkeit gegraben hat. Und nun tobt im Jemen, einer Heimat, ein endloser Bürgerkrieg. Jakob will nur noch vergessen, doch in seinem Kopf hört er Stimmen: Satan und die 14 Nothelfer wollen ihn dazu bringen, sich der Erinnerung zu stellen. Jakob denkt an seine glückliche Kindheit in einem Bordell in Kairo, den religiösen Drill der Klosterschule in Beirut. In San Francisco erlebte er die Befreiung der Schwulen, die sehr bald in einen grausigen Totentanz umschlug. In einer Vielzahl von Stimmen und Handlungsebenen konfrontiert der Roman orientalische und abendländische Lebensweise und Kultur, die sich auch in der Lebensgeschichte Jakobs immerzu bekämpfen und befruchten – elegant, kraftvoll und geistreich.

Le temps d''une nuit, dans la salle d''attente d''un hôpital psychiatrique, Jacob, poète d''origine yéménite, revient sur les événements qui ont marqué sa vie : son enfance dans un bordel égyptien, son adolescence sous l''égide d''un père fortuné, puis sa vie d''adulte homosexuel à San Francisco dans les années 1980, point culminant de l''épidémie du sida. Mais Jacob n''est pas seul : Satan et la Mort se livrent un duel et se disputent son âme, l''un le forçant à se remémorer son passé douloureux, l''autre le poussant à oublier et à renoncer à la vie. En dressant le portrait bouleversant et tout en finesse d''un homme hanté par les souvenirs, Rabih Alameddine livre un texte éblouissant d''érudition et d''imagination, imprégné à la fois d''humour, de violence et de tendresse. Surtout, il nous rappelle l''urgence et la nécessité de se confronter au passé et de ne pas céder à l''oubli.

"Aaliya Sohbi lives alone in her Beirut apartment, surrounded by stockpiles of books. Godless, fatherless, childless, and divorced, Aaliya is her family''s ''unnecessary appendage.'' Every year, she translates a new favorite book into Arabic, then stows it away. The thirty-seven books that Aaliya has translated over her lifetime have never been read-- by anyone. After overhearing her neighbors, ''the three witches, '' discussing her too-white hair, Aaliya accidentally dyes her hair too blue. In this breathtaking portrait of a reclusive woman''s late-life crisis, readers follow Aaliya''s digressive mind as it ricochets across visions of past and present Beirut. Colorful musings on literature, philosophy, and art are invaded by memories of the Lebanese Civil War and Aaliya''s own volatile past. As she tries to overcome her aging body and spontaneous emotional upwellings, Aaliya is faced with an unthinkable disaster that threatens to shatter the little life she has left"--

L''angelo della Storia è quello che guarda al passato mentre una tempesta lo sospinge verso il futuro. L''angelo di questa storia è Jacob, poeta di origini yemenite, che nel corso di una notte nella sala d''attesa di un istituto psichiatrico ripercorre tutta la sua vita: dall''infanzia con la madre in un bordello egiziano all''adolescenza con il ricco padre, fino alla vita adulta da omosessuale arabo a San Francisco, proprio quando l''epidemia di AIDS è al culmine. A tenergli compagnia in questa notte di ricordi ci sono parecchi interlocutori inattesi: Satana, che lo tormenta, la Morte, che vorrebbe spingerlo alla resa, e quattordici santi che guideranno Jacob verso casa, verso la pace e una nuova vita. L''Angelo della Storia è un ritratto filosofico e allegorico di uno spirito in crisi, un racconto centrato sul conflitto quotidiano tra memoria e oblio.

A gay poet is haunted by war and the AIDs crisis in this “sprawling fever dream of a novel” by the Dos Passos Prize-winning author of An Unnecessary Woman (NPR.org). Set over the course of one night in the waiting room of a psych clinic, The Angel of History follows Yemeni-born poet Jacob as he revisits the events of his life. His memories take him from his maternal upbringing in an Egyptian whorehouse to his adolescence under the aegis of his wealthy father and his life as a gay Arab man in San Francisco at the height of AIDS. Haunted by an alluring, sassy Satan, who taunts Jacob to remember his painful past, and by dour, frigid Death, who urges him to forget and give up on life, Jacob is also attended to by fourteen saints. With Jacob recalling his life in Cairo, Beirut, Sana’a, Stockholm, and San Francisco, Alameddine gives us a charged philosophical portrayal of a brilliant mind in crisis. This is a profound story that “marks the triumph of memory over oblivion” (Bookforum).

Lors de l''été 2013, dans le Colorado, un groupe d''écrivains et de militants s''est réuni pour s''interroger sur le rôle de la littérature et ses liens avec l''action sociale. De cette rencontre est née Narrative 4, une association caritative voulue par Colum McCann autour d''un concept fort, celui de l''"empathie radicale". Sa philosophie ? Le partage. Son but ? Faire s''échanger les histoires à travers les pays. Son action ? Favoriser des rencontres entre des jeunes d''horizons, de cultures, de vécus différents, pour se raconter, pour écouter. Et ainsi repousser le cynisme et la désolation, donner une place à l''espérance.

Roman éblouissant à l''érudition joueuse, célébrant la beauté et la détresse de Beyrouth, Les Vies de papier est une véritable déclaration d''amour à la littérature. Aaliya Saleh, 72 ans, les cheveux bleus, a toujours refusé les carcans imposés par la société libanaise. À l''ombre des murs anciens de son appartement, elle s''apprête pour son rituel préféré. Chaque année, le 1er janvier, après avoir allumé deux bougies pour Walter Benjamin, cette femme irrévérencieuse et un brin obsessionnelle commence à traduire en arabe l''une des œuvres de ses romanciers préférés : Kafka, Pessoa ou Nabokov. À la fois refuge et " plaisir aveugle ", la littérature est l''air qu''elle respire, celui qui la fait vibrer comme cet opus de Chopin qu''elle ne cesse d''écouter. C''est entourée de livres, de cartons remplis de papiers, de feuilles volantes de ses traductions qu''Aaliya se sent vivante. Cheminant dans les rues, Aaliya se souvient ; de l''odeur de sa librairie, des conversations avec son amie Hannah, de ses lectures à la lueur de la bougie tandis que la guerre faisait rage, de la ville en feu, de l''imprévisibilité de Beyrouth. Roman éblouissant à l''érudition joueuse, célébrant la beauté et la détresse de Beyrouth, Les Vies de papier est une véritable déclaration d''amour à la littérature. Finaliste du National Book Award 2014 et du National Book Critics Circle Award 2015, et lauréat du California Book Award 2015

Neun packende, spannende, wichtige, nachdenkliche, romantische und coole Bücher - vorgelegt von sechs unabhängigen, anspruchsvollen und einfallsreichen Verlagen. Das ideale Angebot für Leserinnen und Leser, die sich oder ihre Bekannten mit ganz besonderen Büchern beschenken oder betören wollen.

Ze kent Lolita''s moeder beter dan de hare. Aldus Aalia Sohbi. Aalia, 72, woont haar hele leven in Beiroet, is gescheiden van haar man, ''de lusteloze muskiet met onmachtige slurf'', en ze hertrouwt niet. Liefde voor de literatuur bepaalt haar leven. Ze vertaalt één meesterwerk per jaar. Niemand krijgt de vertalingen ooit onder ogen. Een overbodige vrouw bestrijkt één dag, waarin een aantal confrontaties Aalia''s leven op de grondvesten doen schudden. Tegelijkertijd is de roman een gecomprimeerde geschiedenis van een halve eeuw Beiroet, én ruim een halve eeuw wereldliteratuur.

Soprannominata “La Divina” da suo nonno, in omaggio a Sarah Bernhardt, Sarah Nour el-Din, la protagonista del romanzo, è nata a Beirut, e cresce negli anni difficili della guerra civile. Eppure lei non si abbatte, non perde mai, anche nelle situazioni più difficili, la sua smagliante voglia di vita e il suo desiderio di piacere. Nelle trasgressioni dell’adolescenza – la prima sigaretta, il primo bacio, la ribellione verso la severa matrigna, la scoperta dell’eros – nell’età adulta – in cui affronta il fallimento del proprio matrimonio, la perdita del figlio e l’internamento di una sorella – Sarah rimane profondamente se stessa e, anzi, decide di raccontare, senza pudori e senza remore, la sua storia.Rabih Alameddine firma un altro ritratto di una splendida figura femminile, in un romanzo audace, divertente, commovente.

An obsessive introvert in Beirut, eschewed by her family and neighbors for her divorced status and lack of religious reverence, quietly translates favorite books into Arabic while struggling with her aging body until an unthinkable disaster threatens what little life remains to her. By the best-selling author of The Hakawati. 20,000 first printing.

Aaliya Sohbi bor alene i sin lejlighed i Beirut, som er fyldt med bøger. Hun tror ikke på Gud, har ingen far eller børn og er skilt. Aaliya bliver betragtet som familiens unødvendige vedhæng. Hvert år oversætter hun en ny favoritbog til arabisk og gemmer den så væk. Ingen har nogensinde læst nogen af Aaliyas 37 oversatte bøger

Esta magnífica novela nos traslada a un viejo apartamento de Beirut en el que se encuentra una mujer, con el pelo teñido de azul, que tiene una apasionante historia que contar. Por el autor de El contador de historias. La mujer de papel ha sido galardonada con el Premio Femina 2016. « Podríamos decir que cuando me teñí el pelo de azul estaba pensando en otras cosas, y dos copas de vino tinto no mejoraban mi concentración. Me explicaré...» Aquí está Aaliya, una mujer de unos setenta años, cómodamente sentada en un viejo sillón de su apartamento en Beirut, con una taza de té en las manos y muchas ganas de hablar. La señora nos cuenta su vida, pero qué vida... Huérfana de padre, repudiada por un marido al que nunca quiso, Aaliya ha dedicado sus mejores años a leer libros y a traducirlos, mientras en la calle caían las bombas y retumbaban los ecos de una guerra que la obligó a dormir con un rifle al lado de la cama y a ofrecer su cuerpo a cambio de una ducha caliente. Somos lo que leemos, dijo un sabio, y Aaliya es eso: una mujer extravagante y entrañable, rodeada de papeles, que se resguarda de los malos recuerdos a la sombra de la buena literatura, buscando en los libros ese amor que nadie le dio. Entrar en casa de Aaliya es estar ahí con ella y sus vecinos, compartir sus charlas, sus risas, su miedo y su valor, es una experiencia inolvidable que muestra una vez más el talento de Rabih Alameddine y nos seduce con el poder de las buenas historias. La crítica ha dicho... «Se conoce a un personaje femenino muy interesante construido de forma interna e intensa, que vive una realidad social y cultural muy diferente a la nuestra. Porque en ella se cumple la doble función de la literatura de enseñar y deleitar». José Joaquín Martínez Egido, Información «Una experiencia intensa que nos acerca a las mujeres y consagra el talento de Rabih Alameddine, un autor que nos devuelve el placer de leer». Benito Garrido, Culturamas «Al autor le parece fácil ponerse en la piel de una mujer para contar historias, algo que se ha hecho con frecuencia en la literatura -Tolstoi, Flaubert-. [...] Para La mujer de papel, Alameddine se documentó exhaustivamente. Sus páginas están trufadas de citas literarias y su protagonista repasa su vida repudiada por un marido al que nunca quiso, víctima de la guerra de su país y dedicada en cuerpo y alma a los libros y a las traducciones». Olga Perdea, El Periódico Una novela que busca experimentar con cada uno de los colores del mundo y que nos ofrece una historia delicada, lírica y apasionada que a ratos nos rompe el corazón y otros nos lo colma de esperanza. [...] Como un trozo de cerámica, La mujer de papel cobra forma sin un orden establecido y como lectores alcanzamos todos los puntos de vista posibles». The Times «Alameddine da vida a una voz femenina cálida, encantadora, sutil y sofisticada, confirmándose como un narrador capaz de conmover y cautivar a partes iguales». The Guardian «Una historia que nos llega como un secreto susurrado que debe salir a la luz, [...] nutrida por fragmentos -emocionantes, comedidos y desconcertantes- que configuran una narración fluida y generosa». Los Angeles Times «Alameddine crea un retrato cultural de asombrosa originalidad y nos lleva de la mano por un viaje que nadie debería perderse». Miami Herald

La historia d''una dona que viu per la bona literatura en el convuls Beirut dels darrers anys. Després de l''èxit de L''home que explicava històries, Rabih Alameddine torna a triomfar amb aquesta magnífica novel·la que, des de les primeres pàgines, ens trasllada a un pis vell de Beirut. Allà hi trobem Aallija, una dona d''uns seixanta anys, amb els cabells tenyits de blau i una història per explicar. La senyora parla de la seva vida, però quina vida? anys i anys dedicats a llegir els millors llibres i a traduir-los mentre als carrers de Beirut queien bombes i retrunyien els ecos d''una guerra que va convertir molts joves pacífics en espies i sicaris, cosa que va obligar a una dona sola a dormir amb un rifle al costat del llit, per defensar-se dels atacs imprevistos. Som el que llegim, va dir un savi, i Aalija és això: un ésser adorable, fet de paper i, tanmateix, viu, amb un sentit de l''humor molt peculiar, que es protegeix de tot i de tots a l''ombra d''una jaqueta vella de llana i de la bona literatura, tot buscant en els llibres l''amor que la seva família no li va saber donar. Entrar a casa d''Aalija, estar-hi amb ella i les seves veïnes, compartir la seva por i el seu valor, és una experiència intensa que ens acosta a les dones que ara mateix viuen les revoltes de la primavera àrab i mostra, una vegada més, el talent de Rabih Alameddine, un autor que ens retorna el plaer de llegir.

Een meeslepende familiesaga vol mythen, legenden en verhalen Een jonge, getalenteerde muzikant ontvlucht de burgeroorlog in zijn thuisland Libanon en verhuist naar New York. Wanneer hij jaren later terugkeert, ligt zijn vader in het ziekenhuis. Terwijl familie, vrienden en zelfs vijanden de wacht houden aan het ziekbed, brengen ze de tijd door met herinneringen ophalen, ruzie maken en vrede sluiten, maar vooral met verhalen vertellen. De vertellers is een caleidoscopische roman die alle verhalen en legenden van het Midden-Oosten samenbrengt. Alameddine is een rasverteller die de lezer vanaf de eerste zin weet te betoveren.

Un genio uscito dal calamaio, un imperdibile capolavoro fatto di pura narrazione e capacità di affabulare. Un romanzo senza tempo eppure più attuale che mai. Se vi piacciono le storie coinvolgenti, leggete Hakawati. Se vi piacciono le storie sul vero amore, leggete Hakawati. Se vi piacciono i romanzi d’avventura, leggete Hakawati. Se leggete per essere informati sul mondo, leggete Hakawati. Se vi piace evadere, leggete Hakawati. Se leggete solo i classici della letteratura, leggete Hakawati. Se vi piacciono le favole, prima date un’occhiata alle notizie del giorno, poi leggete Hakawati. Rabih Alameddine è l’Hakawati e presto il suo nome sarà sulla bocca di tutti.” Amy Tan

Las Mil y una noches del siglo XXI. Escuchad. Dejad que os guíe en un viaje hacia los confines de la imaginación. Dejad que os cuente una historia... Así empieza a hablar Osama, el hombre recién llegado a Beirut que a lo largo de estas páginas nos desvelará los secretos de su estrafalaria familia y muy en especial del abuelo, un hombre que había dedicado su vida al ilustre oficio de contar historias en bares y mercados. Nadie como él sabía hablar de héroes y villanos, de princesas y esclavas, de tesoros ocultos en ciudades encantadas; nadie sabía mezclar tan sabiamente los hilos de la realidad y la leyenda; nadie, en fin, mejor que él para hacer de la vida un cuento mágico. Osama decide seguir los pasos del abuelo y El contador de historias es su manera de llevarnos a un mundo donde todo es posible, incluso la felicidad. «Si te apasionan las historias de amor, lee El contador de historias. Si prefieres aventuras, lee El contador de historias. Si lees para estar informado, lee El contador de historias. Si solo lees clásicos, también disfrutarás con El contador de historias. Rabih Alameddine es nuestro contador de historias y muy pronto todo el mundo sabrá pronunciar su nombre.» Amy Tan

Volume 2 of this arts and literary publication brings together a collection of works ranging across the visual arts, prose, poetry, music, film and architecture, and includes a CD of music by Gerald Barry.

Maleren Sarah Nour El-Din er født i Beirut og har en amerikansk mor og en libanesisk far. Hun skriver på en selvbiografi, men lider af skriveblokering. En fortælling i første kapitler om identitet og splittelse mellem to kulturer.

Osama al-Kharrat left Lebanon at 16 to escape the civil war. He returns after some years, much changed, to find his father bedridden and his family, friends and enemies gathered close, gossiping, making peace, and above all telling stories. Hakawati means storyteller, and Osama''s grandfather was one of the best. From Uncle Jihad to the family doctor Tin Can, each member of Osama''s circle is joined in a vigil that crosses continents, spans centuries, celebrates love, recounts war, and creates an epic picture of the region: one that is both mythic and painfully real. "Listen. Let me take you on a journey beyond imagining. Let me tell you a story...''''

In 2003, Osama al-Kharrat returns to Beirut after many years in America to stand vigil at his father''s deathbed. As the family gathers, stories begin to unfold: Osama''s grandfather was a hakawati, or storyteller, and his bewitching tales are interwoven with classic stories of the Middle East. Here are Abraham and Isaac; Ishmael, father of the Arab tribes; the beautiful Fatima; Baybars, the slave prince who vanquished the Crusaders; and a host of mischievous imps. Through Osama, we also enter the world of the contemporary Lebanese men and women whose stories tell a larger, heartbreaking tale of seemingly endless war, conflicted identity, and survival. With The Hakawati, Rabih Alameddine has given us an Arabian Nights for this century.