As the bombs fell, she lived an adolescence of excess and transgression, defying death in nightclubs. The more oppressive the country became, the more drugs and anonymous sex she had, fueling the resentment by day of the same men who would spend the night with her. As the war dies down, she begins to incur the consequences of her lifestyle. On his deathbed, her father's last wish is for his favorite song, "Sinnerman" by Nina Simone, to be played at his funeral instead of the traditional suras of the Koran. When she does just that, the results are catastrophic.In this dramatic true story, Darina Al-Joundi is defiantly passionate about living her life as a liberated woman, even if it means leaving everyone and everything behind.

    Original title is:Sautu'l 'Adala ti'l Insaniyah(الامام علی صوت العدالت الاسلامیة). Translated into English by:M. Fazal Haq.

    It has come to reflect the broad historical experiences of the modern Middle East. Beware of Small States is an elegant and incisive history of Lebanon culminating with the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and its aftermath. David Hirst—a former Middle East correspondent for The Guardian, whose tough, skeptical voice has earned him death threats and seen him banned from six Arab countries—crafts a narrative that is essential for anyone wishing to understand the current political climate of the Middle East.

    The city is a shell of the Beirut Osama remembers, but he and his friends and family take solace in the things that have always sustained them: gossip, laughter, and, above all, stories. Osama’s grandfather was a hakawati, or storyteller, and his bewitching stories—of his arrival in Lebanon, an orphan of the Turkish wars, and of how he earned the name al-Kharrat, the fibster—are interwoven with classic tales of the Middle East, stunningly reimagined. Here are Abraham and Isaac; Ishmael, father of the Arab tribes; the ancient, fabled Fatima; and Baybars, the slave prince who vanquished the Crusaders. Here, too, are contemporary Lebanese whose stories tell a larger, heartbreaking tale of seemingly endless war—and of survival. Like a true hakawati, Rabih Alameddine has given us an Arabian Nights for this century—a funny, captivating novel that enchants and dazzles from its very first lines: “Listen. Let me take you on a journey beyond imagining. Let me tell you a story.”

    In these gorgeous translations, her voice remains sumptuous and alluring, carefully drawing the reader in before unveiling soulful insight and wisdom. This is Lebanese-born Joumana Haddad's fifth collection of poetry to be published. She is highly regarded as a poet not only throughout the Arab-speaking world, but also in Europe and Latin America. She has a strong presence on the Internet and has her own Internet fan club. She is currently a literary journalist for the daily Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar,

    A journalist and wine writer, he has appeared in The Times, Sunday Express, Esquire, The Spectator, Decanter, and Harpers among others. He is also a contributor to the award-winning Wine Report (Dorling Kindersley) and the Oxford Companion to Wine (Oxford University Press). He is author of Wines of Lebanon (Saqi 2005), which won the Gourmand Award for the ‘Best Book on New World Wine 2005’ and Chateau Ksara: 150 Years of Wine Making 1957-2007. He is also the co-author of Life’s Like That and Life’s Even More Like That, two books that take a light-hearted look at the Lebanese. He lives in Beirut with his wife and two children.Norbert Schiller an American-born Austrian, has been one of the most prolific Middle East news photographers in the last 25 years. His main work has been for AFP, AP, EPA, The New York Times, Getty Images, and Der Spiegel. He has covered conflicts in Algeria, Chad, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Kurdistan, Lebanon, Libya, the Palestinian Territories, the Persian Gulf, Somali, Sudan, and Western Sahara. His wine books include Wines of Lebanon (Saqi 2005) and Chateau Ksara. His others books include Spectacular Egypt and Be Thou There: The Holy Family’s Journey in Egypt.

    It traces how Syrians came to comprise a significant proportion of Lebanon's workforce during the 1950s and 1960s, the ways in which these Syrians lived through Lebanon's civil wars, and their prolonged unsettlement and exile through both the reconstruction of the 1990s and instability since 2005.Offering both social history and ethnography, John Chalcraft challenges the commonly held view that a more benign form of economic labor migration, one based on personal choice, emerged with the end of slavery and forced labor in the region. Instead, he shows how both coercion and consent, unintended consequences, and hegemonic forms influence the ongoing rotation of migrant workers. This captivating account of the labor market as 'invisible cage' breaks new ground in Middle East and migration studies alike.

    Showcased here for the first time, the posters display a dramatic clash of cultures, ideologies and meanings. Maasri shows how the iconography of the posters changed throughout the war, and links this to changing political identities and imagined communities. She explores the factions' different aesthetic influences; from modern Arab visual culture to Latin America and revolutionary Iran. Combining in-depth knowledge of the local context with fascinating insights into the semiotics of visual media, Off the Wall is a highly original contribution to our understanding of visual culture, civil conflict, and the politics of the Middle East.