Book picks similar to
Mister N by Najwa Barakat
lebanon
middle-east-fiction
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Batlava Lake
Adam Mars-Jones - 2021
Barry Ashton, recently divorced, has been deployed as a civil engineer attached to the Royal Engineers corps in the British Army. In an extraordinary feat of ventriloquism, Adam Mars-Jones constructs a literary story with a thoroughly unliterary narrator, and a narrative that is anything but comic through the medium of a character who, essentially, is. Exploring masculinity, class and identity, Batlava Lake is a brilliant story of men and war by one of Britain's most accomplished writers.
End Of The Road
Brian Keene - 2020
I'm a writer by trade and a road warrior by heart. Neither of these things are wise career or life choices. The tolls add up.Over the last twenty years, things have changed. Book tours have changed, publishing has changed, bookselling has changed, conventions have changed, horror fiction—and the horror genre—have changed. I've changed, too.The only things that haven't changed are writing and the road. They stay the same. The words we type today are the past tomorrow. Everything is connected like the highways on a map are connected. This holds true for the history of our genre, as well.I rode into town twenty years ago. Now I'm riding out. You're all coming with me..."So begins Brian Keene's End of the Road—a memoir, travelogue, and post-Danse Macabre examination of modern horror fiction, the people who write it, and the world they live—and die—in. Exhilarating, emotional, heartfelt, and at times hilarious, End of the Road is a must-read for fans of the horror genre. Introduction by Gabino Iglesias.
A Green Light
Matthew Rohrer - 2004
Over and over these poems leave us convinced that we’ve learned something very important and mysterious, yet we can’t say exactly what.
The Festival of Earthly Delights
Matt Dojny - 2012
It's the one day of the year when everyone has a shot at finding true love—even a rapacious, over-sexed turtle god. It's a celebration of hobos and heartbreak, Lionel Richie impersonators and banana-brandy-flavored rice wine. It's The Festival of Earthly Delights.Boyd Darrow is a young American living in Puchai, a tiny Southeast Asian country that tourist brochures refer to as "The Kingdom of Winks." In a series of letters written to a mysterious recipient, Boyd tells of the delights, humiliations and brain-bending misadventures he experiences while adjusting to life in the small college town of Mai Mor. He and his somewhat less-than-faithful girlfriend, Ulla, were hoping to start their lives over in Puchai, but Puchai has an agenda all its own.Ulla's been hired to organize the talent show at the town's annual "Festival of Taang," but she seems more interested in the possibilities of cultural exchange with a local revolutionary. Meanwhile, Boyd grapples with a culture in which baby owls are considered a delicacy, turtles are worshipped as deities, and a wink can have one of 379 possible meanings (including "You're fired," "There's something in my eye," and "I want to kiss your lips!"). He's also falling for his boss's daughter, a half-Puchanese girl with a black eye and a troubling past. Lines are crossed, secrets are revealed, and, as Boyd's life inevitably spins out of control, the Festival draws closer with each day...Hilarious and wise and fiercely original, The Festival of Earthly Delights is a no-holds-barred celebration of love, cultural differences, and one man's reluctant embrace of the sensual pleasures of this world, in all their awkward, enigmatic glory.ADVANCE PRAISE"If Puchai were a real country, I'd be a citizen by now, or at least an illegal alien. What a glorious novel!" —Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story"Matt Dojny's novel is a true delight. I can't think of any writer since Kingsley Amis who's been able to write high-minded comedy that packs such a punch. I've never enjoyed a comic novel more." —John Wray, author of Lowboy"Matt Dojny's narrator Boyd Darrow is as poetically drawn as J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, and as intimately hilarious as C.D. Payne's Nick Twisp. Dojny has created an entire country filled with characters that are so fresh and endearing, you'll find yourself wishing Puchai were a real place. I love this book." —Kristen Schaal (Flight of the Conchords, The Daily Show)"Comic novels can be whimsical, or clever, or delightful, or witty, or canny, or powerful. Rarely are they all of those things. Matt Dojny's large-hearted, bright-minded novel has drawings and letters and love and loss, and now you do, too." —Ben Greenman, author of What He's Poised to Do and Superbad
Shivers
Richard ChizmarDouglas Clegg - 2002
Silva, Graham Masterton, Jay Bonansinga, and many others! Featuring both original dark fiction and rare reprints, SHIVERS is available only as a beautiful perfect-bound trade paperback!Table of Contents:Fodder - Brian Keene & Tim LebbonIce Box - Jay BonansingaThe Hand of Glory - Simon ClarkHermanoes De El Noche - Bentley LittleWalking With the Ghosts of Pier 13 - Brian Freeman265 and Heaven - Douglas CleggThe Sailor Home from the Sea - John PelanThis Is the End; My Only Friend, The End - David B. SilvaWhite-Out - Peter Crowther & Simon ConwayThe Holding Cell - Jack KetchumThe Wager - Thomas F. MonteleoneAlways Traveling, Never Arriving - Robert MorrishThat Extra Mile - David Niall Wilson & Brian A. HopkinsBleed With Me: A Brackard's Point Story - Geoff CooperThe Green Face - Al SarrantonioTender Tigers - Nancy A. CollinsSpin Cycle - David G. BarnettThrowing Caution to the Wind... - Kelly LaymonPortrait of a Sociopath - Edward LeeThe Sympathy Society - Graham Masterton
The Failure Six
Shane Jones - 2010
A young woman named Foe has lost her memory and six messengers who attempt to recite her past back to her inevitably - and creatively - fail. Parts Kafka, Lewis Carroll, and Aesop, the imagistic allegory warns that in a culture of texting, email, and Twitter, we can't forsake real conversation - or we could lose its art forever. - Interview Magazine, Dec/Jan 2010.An exquisite memento of wildly imagined scenes, odd characters, and nightmares confused with waking life, a slipstream loop where bureaucracy and hallucination are so intertwined that you’re often confused which is the most absurd. - The Brooklyn Rail, April 2010.
The Masada Scroll
Paul Block - 2007
Douglas and, more recently, Christ the Lord by Anne Rice and Stone Tables by Orson Scott Card, The Masada Scroll is bold and reverent, with deep and important meaning for today's world. At the heart of this timely novel is the discovery of a previously unknown gospel that predates the four gospels of the New Testament. The scroll introduces a mysterious symbol that combines the Star of David, the Cross of Christianity and the Crescent and Star of Islam. None of these symbols existed at the time the Gospel was written, adding to the mystery that Michael Flannery, an Irish priest, must unravel. Flannery discovers that the symbol represents the Trevia Dei, or Three Paths to God. At the heart of Jesus' message is the unity of the paths that lead to God. The true meaning of Trevia Dei has become perverted over the centuries, turning the message of unity into a single path to salvation. But there are those who do not want the message of this wonderful book of light and love brought to our troubled world, who have chosen to separate rather than unite God's children. The Masada Scroll is the story of the new Apostles who struggle to bring the simple message of Jesus back into a world desperate for joy. The Masada Scroll is a tale of the timeless quest for spiritual truth and redemption. It is a story that will change the way you look at the world…and your own heart.
50 American Plays
Michael Dickman - 2012
. . is strikingly different. Michael's poems are interior, fragmentary, and austere, often stripped down to single-word lines; they seethe with incipient violence. Matthew's are effusive, ecstatic, and all-embracing, spilling over with pop-cultural references and exuberant carnality." —The New YorkerIdentical twins Michael and Matthew Dickman once invented their own language. Now they have invented an exhilarating book of poem-plays about the fifty states. Pointed, comic, and surreal, these one-page vignettes feature unusual staging and an eclectic cast of characters—landforms, lobsters, and historical figures including Duke Ellington, Sacajawea, Judy Garland, and Kenneth Koch, the avant-garde spirit informing this book introduced by playwright John Guare."Lucky in Kansas"Judy Garland: This is always the worst partTin Man: The coming backJudy Garland: Yes, it fucking sucks, it's depressing as shitThe Lion: Well, we're lucky to still be employed at this farmStraw Man: I wouldn't call it luckyThe Lion: We were lucky to get backStraw Man: That's not really lucky either I don't think you know what lucky meansJudy Garland: It's funny what you missTin Man: The runningJudy Garland: The flyingTin Man: The flying monkeysJudy Garland: The beautiful flying monkeys above the endless emeralds the unbelievably green worldMichael Dickman and Matthew Dickman are identical twins who were born and raised in Portland, Oregon. Michael received the 2010 James Laughlin Award for his second collection Flies (Copper Canyon Press, 2011). Matthew won the prestigious APR/Honickman Award for his debut volume, All-American Poem.
A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness: Four Chapbooks of Short Short Fiction by Four Women
Amy L. Clark - 2008
The four chapbooks collected in A PECULIAR FEELING OF RESTLESSNESS, three of them finalists and one of them the winner of the Rose Metal Press first annual short short chapbook contest, all revel in the succinctness of their form, the underlying tension anchored beneath each story of 1,000 words or less. These stories are peculiar; they resonate with restlessness. They are deft, they are gritty, and they are lyrical. Laughter, Applause. Laughter, Music, Applause by Kathy Fish, Wanting by Amy L. Clark, Sixteen Miles Outside of Phoenix by Elizabeth Ellen, and The Sky Is a Well by Claudia Smith combine four multi-layered portrayals of beautiful uneasiness into a collection rich with wit, grace, and originality.
Person/a
Elizabeth Ellen - 2017
Told in four volumes over seven years, with emails, g-chats, and an ‘interview’ with Lydia Davis (and a nod to Ms. Davis’s The End of the Story), the style of Person/a is often experimental, pushing the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction, obsession and mental instability, female independence and a loyalty to current and former lovers, but with the ultimate loyalty being to oneself or one's writing, and is there a difference? and should we be ashamed?
Witchita Stories
Troy James Weaver - 2015
Told through the eyes of a young man who yearns to find excitement, truth, and a deeper family bond in his life, Weaver's approachable and revealing stories, lists, fragments, and memories delve into the weird, funny, and sometimes unsettling world of a midwest kid finding his own path."Thank god you can come across a writer like Troy James Weaver. In the future people will just say these stories are like Troy James Weaver stories and you'll know exactly what they mean." --Scott McClanahan "There are moments, reading Witchita Stories, where everything dropped away, and I was speechless, or at least whatever the equivalent of speechless is when you're not talking in the first place. There is a deep sadness to these stories, and humor, but most importantly, honesty. This feels real and heavy and it's just about the best thing I've read in a long time." --J. David Osborne
The Hezbollah Hiking Club: A short walk across the Lebanon
Dom Joly - 2019
470 kilometres. Twenty-one days.
Welcome to the Hezbollah Hiking Club . . .
At a boozy, cricket-filled afternoon at Lord's, Dom Joly convinces his two closest friends to agree to the unthinkable: a challenging hike across Lebanon, from the Israeli border in the south, along the spine of the country's mountain range, all the way to the Syrian border in the north. For Joly it is something of a homecoming, having grown up in Beirut. It was a happy childhood, though he did go to school with Osama bin Laden.Arriving in Lebanon armed with copious amounts of Vaseline - and no walking experience, bar taking the dog for the occasional stroll - Dom, Chris and Harry don't quite know what they've got themselves into. Joined by their bemused chaperone Caroll, they meet a variety of characters along the way including Ali, a stony-faced Hezbollah Museum guide who seems unperturbed by circling Israeli jets, and part-time Londoner Raf, who challenges Dom and the boys to a brain-freeze drinking contest. From a hair-raising creep along the 'Valley of the Skulls' to accidentally flashing an unsuspecting Ethiopian cook, the three friends just about manage to keep going.With more than a smattering of persiflage and some cringe-worthy moments, The Hezbollah Hiking Club is a big-hearted, witty and affectionate love letter to Lebanon and its rich history with a meditation on family and homeland at its heart. Written with Dom's trademark humour, it is a paean to both the simple joys of friendship and to growing old disgracefully.
The Life God Blesses: The Secret of Enjoying God's Favor
Jim Cymbala - 2001
Have these people learned a formula or a simple technique that will guarantee his blessing? Or is there something more profound at work in their lives? In The Life God Blesses, Jim Cymbala points out that God is constantly searching for people to bless. He’s not looking for men and women with special talents or unusual intelligence or great strength but for those who possess a certain kind of heart. Find out how to have a heart that God cannot resist and you will become a channel of his blessing for your family, your church, and your world.
Sorrow Arrow
Emily Kendal Frey - 2014
Wily, witty and weird, often haunting, sometimes heartbreaking, [Frey's] poems…dive deep, for all their individual brevity.
Big Lonesome
Jim Ruland - 2005
Understanding that history is nothing but a fable purged of grit and grime, Ruland transforms historical fiction into something slick, brutal and weird. Whether he's spinning a lurid yarn about the previous adventures of Popeye, imagining Dick Tracy as a San Fernando Valley police detective, or retelling the story of Little Red Riding Hood in Nazi Germany, Ruland's tales are full of crime and punishment. He isn't afraid to set a teenage mob story in St. Petersburg, Florida, or tell the story of an unlucky pair of pants in the style of a catechism--and every line resonates with the truth of lessons learned the hard way.