Fiction_L Archives (2003) - Middle East fiction

Fiction_L Archives

Middle East fiction
Dates: 2/12/03,4:52 PM through 2/15/03,3:30 PM (24 postings)

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FROM: RYOUNGERMAN <[removed]@mail.selco.lib.mn.us>
REC'D: 2/12/03, 4:52 PM

FROM: "Dick Turner" <[removed]@vpl.ca>
REC'D: 2/12/03, 5:03 PM

-----Original Message-----
From: RYOUNGERMAN <[removed]@mail.selco.lib.mn.us>
To: Fiction_L <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
Sent: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 16:51:45 -0600
Subject: Middle East fiction

We just got a reading group going at our library, and they want to read
about the Middle East for our April meeting. I've found lots of
nonfiction, but they also want some fiction titles. Does anyone have
any recommendations for fiction dealing with the cultural and social
issues of the Middle East? The only one I came up with so far was The
Source, by Michener. Thanks.
Robin Youngerman
Winona Public Library
Winona, MN

.....................................................................
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Everything Fiction_L: http://fictionl.webrary.org

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dick Turner, Librarian II
Popular Reading Library
Vancouver Public Library
350 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, B.C.
V6B 6B1
Telephone: (604) 331-3686
Fax: (604) 331-3688
E-mail: [removed]@vpl.ca

FROM: "Marsha Valance" <[removed]@mpl.org>
REC'D: 2/12/03, 5:03 PM

Johnson, Diane.
PERSIAN NIGHTS.

Mahfouz, Naguib.
ARABIAN NIGHTS AND DAYS.
THE BEGGAR.
THE BEGINNING AND THE END.
CHILDREN OF THE ALLEY.
THE HARAFISH.
MIDAQ ALLEY.
PALACE OF DESIRE, THE CAIRO TRILOGY, book 2.
PALACE WALK, THE CAIRO TRILOGY, book 1.
RESPECTED SIR.
THE SEARCH.
SUGAR STREET, THE CAIRO TRILOGY, book 3.
THE TIME AND THE PLACE, AND OTHER STORIES.
WEDDING SONG.

Milani, Abbas TALES OF TWO CITIES: A PERSIAN MEMOIR.

Schami, Rafik DAMASCUS NIGHTS.
A HAND FULL OF STARS.

Sigel, Efrem THE KERMANSHAH TRANSFER: A NOVEL OF MIDDLE EASTERN INTRIGUE.

Marsha Valance
Regional Librarian
Wisconsin Regional Library f/t Blind & Physically Handicapped
813 West Wells St.
Milwaukee, WI 53233
1.800.242.8822 [in-state]
<[removed]@mpl.org>

>>> [removed]@mail.selco.lib.mn.us 02/12/03 04:51PM >>>
We just got a reading group going at our library, and they want to read
about the Middle East for our April meeting. I've found lots of
nonfiction, but they also want some fiction titles. Does anyone have
any recommendations for fiction dealing with the cultural and social
issues of the Middle East? The only one I came up with so far was The
Source, by Michener. Thanks.
Robin Youngerman
Winona Public Library
Winona, MN

......................................................................
Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
Everything Fiction_L: http://fictionl.webrary.org

FROM: "Joan Cales" <[removed]@wpl.org>
REC'D: 2/12/03, 5:14 PM

----- Original Message -----
From: "RYOUNGERMAN" <[removed]@mail.selco.lib.mn.us>
To: "Fiction_L" <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 4:51 PM
Subject: Middle East fiction

> We just got a reading group going at our library, and they want to read
> about the Middle East for our April meeting. I've found lots of
> nonfiction, but they also want some fiction titles. Does anyone have
> any recommendations for fiction dealing with the cultural and social
> issues of the Middle East? The only one I came up with so far was The
> Source, by Michener. Thanks.
> Robin Youngerman
> Winona Public Library
> Winona, MN
>
> ......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L: http://fictionl.webrary.org
>
>

FROM: "Lisa Colcord" <[removed]@ci.glendale.az.us>
REC'D: 2/12/03, 5:24 PM

Lisa

Lisa Colcord
Librarian
Glendale Public library
Glendale, AZ

....my views are my own....

-The secret to life is enjoying the passage of time- James Taylor

>>> [removed]@mail.selco.lib.mn.us 02/12/03 03:51PM >>>
We just got a reading group going at our library, and they want to read
about the Middle East for our April meeting. I've found lots of
nonfiction, but they also want some fiction titles. Does anyone have
any recommendations for fiction dealing with the cultural and social
issues of the Middle East? The only one I came up with so far was The
Source, by Michener. Thanks.
Robin Youngerman
Winona Public Library
Winona, MN

......................................................................
Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
Everything Fiction_L: http://fictionl.webrary.org

FROM: "Jeannine Cook" <[removed]@co.douglas.or.us>
REC'D: 2/12/03, 5:24 PM

RYOUNGERMAN wrote:

--
Jeannine Cook
Adult Services Librarian

Douglas County Library
1409 NE Diamond Lake Blvd.
Roseburg OR 97470
[removed]@co.douglas.or.us
phone: (541)440-6013
fax: (541)440-6011

FROM: Laura Dudnik <[removed]@epl.org>
REC'D: 2/12/03, 5:44 PM

-Laura Dudnik
Evanston Public Library
Evanston, IL 60201

At 04:51 PM 2/12/03 -0600, you wrote:
>We just got a reading group going at our library, and they want to read
>about the Middle East for our April meeting. I've found lots of
>nonfiction, but they also want some fiction titles. Does anyone have
>any recommendations for fiction dealing with the cultural and social
>issues of the Middle East? The only one I came up with so far was The
>Source, by Michener. Thanks.
>Robin Youngerman
>Winona Public Library
>Winona, MN
>
>......................................................................
>Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
>Everything Fiction_L: http://fictionl.webrary.org
>

FROM: Andrew Smith <[removed]@mail.wrl.org>
REC'D: 2/12/03, 5:54 PM

NoveList also has a good compilation of Islamic fiction, not limited to
the Middle East, that you might want to look at.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Andrew Smith [removed]@mail.wrl.org
Readers Services Librarian
Williamsburg Regional Library (757) 259-4050
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On Wed, 12 Feb 2003, RYOUNGERMAN wrote:

FROM: "Carla Hutchens" <[removed]@oplin.lib.oh.us>
REC'D: 2/12/03, 5:54 PM

-------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "RYOUNGERMAN" <[removed]@mail.selco.lib.mn.us>
To: "Fiction_L" <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 5:51 PM
Subject: Middle East fiction

FROM: David Wright <[removed]@yahoo.com>
REC'D: 2/12/03, 6:15 PM

FAWAL, IBRAHIM. ON THE HILLS OF GOD. (1998)
Booklist Review: Fawal unfolds the life of
17-year-old Yousif Safi, a Palestinian about to
graduate from high school. Dreaming of becoming a
lawyer and marrying his sweetheart, Yousif is
blissfully unaware of the political struggle
about to erupt throughout Palestine. When the UN
votes to internationalize Jerusalem and its
surroundings, Yousif and his family see the
beginnings of a violence that becomes full-scale
war between Palestinians and Zionist Jews, come
to conquer the Promised Land again. Fawal gives
voice to the countless Palestinians who have lost
homes, families, and ways of life because of
political upheavals that continue today. The
events Fawal describes took place more than 50
years ago, and their outcomes are well known, yet
Fawal writes with such immediacy and fervor that
a reader will easily entertain, with Yousif, the
hope that peace between Zionists and Palestinians
is possible. In a novel that appeals to our
common humanity, Fawal begs us to find within
ourselves the capability to treat one another
with a compassion transcending religious dogma
and political cant. ((Reviewed May 1, 1998)) --
Bonnie Johnston

GAVRON, DANIEL. PILGRIMS�. (2000)
A small Christian-owned hotel in Jerusalem
becomes a meeting place for religious factions
fighting for dominance. ��Yet another view of
the experience in Israel since 1900 comes from
Daniel Gavron's novel Pilgrims� (2000), which
portrays interactions between Jews, Christians,
and Muslims in a hotel run by a family of
Christians. The original members of the family
first arrived in Palestine on their honeymoon at
the beginning of the 20th Century, and the novel
carries the story to the present day.�

NYE, NAOMI SHIHAB. HABIBI. (1997)
When fourteen-year-old Liyanne Abboud, her
younger brother, and her parents move from St.
Louis to a new home between Jerusalem and the
Palestinian village where her father was born,
they face many changes and must deal with the
tensions between Jews and Palestinians.
Booklist Review: Books for Youth, Older Readers:
Gr. 6-10. What is it like to be young in
Palestine today? That is the focus of this
stirring docunovel, which breaks new ground in YA
fiction. Liyana Abboud, 14, moves with her family
from St. Louis to Jerusalem. For her physician
father, it is going home to where he was born and
educated. To Liyana, her younger brother, and her
American mother, it is a huge upheaval. At first
Liyana misses the U.S., can't speak the
languages, and feels uncertain at school, "tipped
between" the cultures. She is awkward with her
bossy grandmother ("Sitti") and overwhelmed by
her huge extended family when she visits their
village on the West Bank. The military occupation
is always there and the simmering conflict
between Jew and Arab. In one horrifying scene,
Israeli soldiers tear into Sitti's house and
smash her bathroom. In a climactic episode, after
a Palestinian bomb has injured civilians, the
Israelis shoot an innocent boy in the leg, and
Liyana's father is held in prison overnight. Yet
it doesn't have to be that way. Liyana meets and
loves a Jewish boy, and together they join the
Jews and Arabs trying to make peace.

Fairest Among Women, by Shifra Horn.
Booklist Review: From the author of Four Mothers
(1999) comes this magic-realist family history of
50 years in the life of the beautiful Rosa, born
during Israel's War for Independence. Rosa's
story encompasses her experiences among other
immigrants who arrived in Palestine in the wake
of World War II, her childhood girlfriends, her
three marriages, the births of her eight children
and her many grandchildren, and, finally, her
disappearance on a cold night in the 1990s. But
beneath the narrative--filled with foretelling of
the future, stories of the past (that are told
and retold with folktale-like simplicity), and
mysterious occurrences--lies the darkness of the
Holocaust and how the bare fact of it alone
haunts both the living and the dead. The lives of
survivors are shaped by their experiences in the
death camps, while the dead return, unforgotten,
in people's dreams. Unfortunately, the clumsy
translation detracts from the novel's strengths.
Recommended for large fiction collections or
those libraries with significant interest in
Israeli literature. (Reviewed May 1, 2001) --
Nancy Pearl

The Pickup, by Nadine Gordimer.
Booklist Review: Gordimer crosses new borders in
this contemporary novel that takes a
postapartheid young South African woman out to a
widening world. Julie Summers knows that her
father and his rich white friends can move about
the globe as they please. Everyone in Julie's
world, rich and poor, is an immigrant somehow.
Ashamed of her background, she has left the
suburbs to hang out with the hip multiracial
crowd in the city; then one day she picks up an
illegal Arab immigrant, �Abdu,� who is working as
an auto mechanic. They become lovers, and when
he's deported, she insists on going back with him
as his wife to his poor desert village. He's
desperate to leave again, and she finds herself
shuffling along in lines for papers, just like
the migrants under apartheid. Without
romanticism, Gordimer dramatizes the paradox of
privilege. Julie's confidence comes from the
shelter she rejects. In contrast, her husband can
barely allow himself to love her, sure that this
is just another adventure for the suburban girl.
His determination is a long way from the
idealistic conversation that flows at Julie's
cafe, where �indignation went back and forth
across the cappuccino.� Julie is a tourist in
Abdu's village, where the village radio blares
Easternized American pop and the daily call to
prayer is electronic. It's the places that make
the story so compelling, and Gordimer captures
the contrasts in the beat of her prose, whether
it's the frenzy of the city block, the sweep of
the desert, or the lovers' intimacy and distance
in their lean-to room. Even on the last page,
Gordimer is still surprising us about the search
for home. (Reviewed July 1, 2001) -- Hazel
Rochman

Martyr�s Crossing, by Amy Wilentz.
Booklist Review. On a riotous night in
Palestine, the Ramallah checkpoint into Israel
becomes the periphery of life and death when
Israeli security denies entrance to a Palestinian
woman named Marina Hajimi. Although Marina's sole
intention is to bring her asthmatic son, Ibrahim,
to Israel's Hadassah Hospital, security clearance
is denied on the basis that her incarcerated
husband is the leader of a Palestinian liberation
organization believed responsible for recent bus
bombings. The Israeli lieutenant on guard that
night, Ari Doron, is forced to make decisions
that will have a monumental impact on his own
life and Marina's and will exacerbate an already
explosive situation. As Marina's predicament
unfolds, her father, George Raad, finds himself
incapacitated by ambivalent feelings toward
Palestine, his comrades, and the liberation
effort as a whole. Wilentz, the award-winning
Jerusalem correspondent for the New Yorker, is
masterful at turning the Israeli/Palestinian
predicament like a prism to expose multifaceted
viewpoints, leaving the reader with insight into
the politics and an overwhelming empathetic
vision of the human pain that is part of daily
living in this region of the world.
(Reviewed January 1, 2001) -- Elsa Gaztambide

Hayati My Life, by Miriam Cooke.
Library Journal Review. Given the present
turbulent state of affairs in Israel and
Palestine, readers couldn't ask for a timelier,
more relevant novel than Hayati, titled after a
term of endearment meaning "my life." A professor
of Arabic literature, Cooke is familiar with
women and war in the Middle East, having written
or edited numerous titles on this topic (e.g.,
Women and the War Story). Here, she documents
three generations of Arab women, moving from the
British-occupied Palestine of the 1920s to Kuwait
during the Iraqi invasion of 1990. Cooke cannot
help but politicize the personal lives of Samya,
her daughter Assia, and Assia's daughters Maryam
and Araf, as she conveys the ordeals they must
face: war, imprisonment, loss of loved ones,
diasporas, and rape. But the collective voices of
her characters project beyond their tribulations,
dispatching a message of strength and resilience
that is universally comprehensible.--Faye A.
Chadwell, Univ. of Oregon, Eugene Copyright 2000
Cahners Business Information.

Damascus Gate, by Robert Stone.
Booklist Review: /*Starred Review*/ If you were
planning to write a millennial thriller, don't
bother. Robert Stone, whose work has always had
an apocalyptic tinge, has made the newborn genre
redundant with one grand, sweeping,
multidimensional novel. Whenever a work of
fiction truly transcends its genre, it does so by
using either a narrative convention or a familiar
story line to serve some greater purpose. Stone's
novel concerns a plot by Christian
fundamentalists and Jewish radicals to blow up
the mosques on Jerusalem's Temple Mount and thus
hasten, for the former, the Second Coming, and
for the latter, the rebuilding of the Jewish
Temple. That story line is skillfully developed,
engendering considerable suspense, but the heart
of the book lies in its characters' tormented
inner lives, as a handful of Jews, Christians,
Arabs, and combinations of each struggle with the
idea of God and the nature of belief. A
half-Jewish, half-Catholic, mostly agnostic
writer named Lucas, who is writing a book on
religious obsession, is drawn into the lives of a
well-meaning but manipulated group of believers
who hope to unite all religions and thus ready
themselves for what the Torah calls tikkun, when
"all the unheard music would be heard, everything
holy." In love with one of the group's members, a
black jazz singer from America, Lucas wants to
believe but is held back by the thought that "all
the grief in the twentieth century has come from
trying to turn life into art." Stone achieves a
marvelous unity of his own, as philosophical
debate, meditation on belief, and building
suspense all come together in a stunning finale
that satisfies on all levels. This is a novel of
ideas, but it is also, and perhaps most
significantly, a novel of place, securely
grounded in the stones of Jerusalem, "in the
place whence all we knew of God absconded,
promised return, pretended return, promised
messengers, whispered messages." ((Reviewed
February 15, 1998)) -- Bill Ott

Honor Lost, by Norma Khouri.
From Publishers Weekly The timeless tragedy of
Shakespeare's star-cross'd lovers is reflected in
our modern era in this directly narrated but
deeply affecting story of a Catholic man and a
Muslim woman secretly in love in contemporary
Jordan. Even in this relatively modern Islamic
state, not only is it impossible for them to
overcome ancient prejudices, but if they were
known to have been together, however innocently,
their lives, particularly that of the woman,
could be forfeit. Khouri, a poet and short
fiction writer (and Catholic) who now lives in
exile because of the events she relates here,
opened a unisex beauty salon in Amman with her
dearest friend, Dalia, hoping to achieve some
measure of freedom in a stultifying society in
which women are wholly without rights and, once
married, completely subservient to their
husbands. Michael, an attractive young Catholic
man, comes to the salon to have his hair cut by
Dalia so often that she jokes he will soon be
trimmed bald, until she realizes he is shyly
interested in her-but she is Muslim. The two dare
to love and plan to escape abroad. However,
Dalia's younger brother suspects her of
"dishonoring" the family by loving an outsider,
and the ancient code of honor, as violently in
effect today as ever, immediately demands the
taking of her life to remove the stain. The
importance of what Khouri has to say overcomes
her guileless prose, and she does not hesitate to
insert a lengthy chapter of Islamic history,
especially condemning what she, as a Christian,
perceives as the religion's rigidly determined,
denigrating attitudes to women. While the book is
not a polemic, its message, particularly resonant
in today's world, in which Islam has become a
major player, conveys some knowledge of that
world and its thinking in general, but in regard
to the rights of women, it holds an especially
significant appeal.

Palestine's Children: Returning to Haifa & Other
Stories, by Ghassan Kanafani.

Publishers Weekly
Ghassan Kanafani's meteoric literary and
political career ended abruptly one morning in
July 1972, when his booby-trapped car exploded,
killing him and his niece. At the time, Kanafani
was the spokesperson for the most militant wing
of the Palestinian fedayeen. That militancy is
reflected in these 14 stories. Beginning with a
narrative disconcertingly entitled "The Child
Borrows His Uncle's Gun and Goes East to Safad,"
Kanafani plunges into the 1948 conflict between
the Jews and Palestinians, following a
17-year-old, Mansur, whose actions mirror the
author's own experiences. In a series of stories,
the reader follows Mansur as he carries his old
Turkish gun into the thick of sharpshooting
contests with "Zionists" (as Israelis are
identified in this strongly pro-Arab text) in old
Palestinian town centers. Later, Mansur's uncle,
Abu Al-Hassan, uses the gun on the British
forces. These stories end, inevitably, with the
consequences of defeat for the Palestinians: "The
Child Goes to the Camp," in which the narrator--a
different child than Mansur--must survive the
hunger sweeping through the refugee camps. He
does so with a talisman, a five-pound note he
finds in the street. In the novella for which
Kanafani became famous, "Returning to Haifa," the
year is 1967, but the events are prefigured by
the Palestinian population's uprooting from Haifa
in 1948. Said S. and his wife, Safiyya, return to
Haifa to the apartment they were forced to
abandon and the memories of their infant son,
Khaldun, inadvertently left behind in the mass
panic. Miraculously, the Jewish couple who took
over the apartment found and adopted the child,
who is now an Israeli soldier. This story, which
ends with a renunciation of even blood ties in
the sacred cause of revenge, foretells the
terrible violence of the '70s. (Sept.) Copyright
2000 Cahners Business Information.|

In Search of Walid Masoud, by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra
Booklist Review: Readers who appreciate fiction
that opens a window on other cultures should
welcome this title in Syracuse University Press'
Middle Eastern literature series. The personal
and political intersect in the penetrating novel
by the late distinguished Palestinian author
Jabra Ibrahim Jabra. Though Jabra also wrote in
English, this work was written in Arabic,
published in 1978, and is translated here for the
first time. Walid Masoud, born in Bethlehem in
1920 (like the author), is a Palestinian of
humble origins, dispossessed by the Arab-Israeli
War of 1948. In Baghdad, he becomes part of an
elite circle of intellectuals and professionals,
who are mystified when he drops out of sight, his
car abandoned on the Iraqi-Syrian border. Jabra
uses a variety of techniques to reconstruct
Masoud's life up to his disappearance--a tape he
leaves behind in his car, the recollections of
his many lovers and friends, Masoud's own
narrative of his early years. "Walid's lost his
roots," says one woman, and his life can be read
as the odyssey of an exile trying to regain a
homeland. The perspective this novel offers not
only on the problem of Palestine but also on the
Arab world is a revelation. ((Reviewed August
2000)) -- Mary Ellen Quinn

Smile of the Lamb, by David Grossman.
Library Journal Review: A much-acclaimed Israeli
writer ( The Yellow Wind and See Under: Love ,
both LJ ``Best Books'') here offers a tour de
force about Israeli occupation of Palestinian
territory that is a wrenching but ennobling
experience for the reader. Originally published
in Hebrew in 1983, the novel probes in
devastating fashion both personal and national
morality, trust, and truth. Uri, an idealistic
young soldier, is serving in an army unit in the
West Bank, under the command of Katzman, an
enigmatic, embittered commander who is involved
with Uri's wife, Shosh. Shosh, who works in a
juvenile psychiatric institution, is beset by the
death of a client who commits suicide after she
has an affair with him. In the meantime, Uri is
absorbed by his friendship with Hilmi, an old
Arab storyteller who poignantly describes
Palestinian life and culture. Hostage-taking,
struggles of the heart and mind, and killing are
all portrayed, with the falsehoods and fantasies
of the players woven deftly into a whole.
Grossman tells the story of the Jewish people in
Israel and his perceptions of an erosion of their
values. A troubling, difficult, but essential
book. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ
4/1/90.--Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, Md.
Don�t Call it Night, by Amos Oz.
Booklist Review: Subtlety, both in form and
content, defines this quiet yet penetrating short
novel from Israel's best-known writer. Set in
Tel-Kedar, an Israeli settlement in the Negev
Desert, the story concerns a slowly
disintegrating relationship, distance gradually
displacing intimacy just as the desert inexorably
threatens to reclaim the forlorn little town.
Teo, a 60-year-old engineer, has recently
returned to Israel from Latin America at the whim
of his lover, the much-younger No'a, a teacher.
Their relationship, begun in Venezuela, startled
both of them with its intensity, the limitless
connection that broke down all of the self's
defenses. Yet, now, limits have reasserted
themselves, and the lovers tread warily, "like
touching glass with glass and drawing back just
in time." When one of No'a's pupils dies of a
drug overdose, the townsfolk argue over a fitting
memorial, and Teo and No'a are drawn into the
turmoil. Skillfully alternating point of view
between his two main characters, Oz shows us the
painful process by which a couple uncouples, one
sinew at a time. And yet, hope is never quite
extinguished: Is tenderness alone enough to
withstand the desert's arid wind? ((Reviewed
Sept. 15, 1996)) -- Bill Ott

=====
David Wright Seattle Public Library

__________________________________________________
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FROM: David Wright <[removed]@yahoo.com>
REC'D: 2/12/03, 6:15 PM

The Hill of Evil Counsel, by Amos Oz.
Three stories, set in Jerusalem at the twilight
of the British mandate, dramatize the plight of
refugees seeking shelter and living in the past
and activists preparing for the future

Panther in the Basement, by Amos Oz.
Proffy, 12, tries to form his own underground
resistance group in his family's basement as
Israel prepares to fight for independence, but he
becomes friends with a British police officer
instead.

BADR, LIYANAH. A BALCONY OVER THE FAKIHANI.
(1997)
From Kirkus Reviews
Three poignant novellas about life-in-exile from
Palestinian writer Badr, born in Jerusalem and
now living in Tunisia. The stories, set mainly in
Beirut, are preoccupied with exile but with not
forgetting homes in Israel, in Jordan, and then
in Beirut, from which Palestinians have been
driven as conflicts ravage the region. ``A Land
of Rock and Thyme'' is told by Ysra, a young
woman whose husband, a resistance fighter from
the West Bank, has been killed in an Israeli raid
into South Lebanon. A disturbing dream about a
visit to the Martyrs' Cemetery leads Ysra to
recall her father, who was killed by a shell
while she was fetching water in the refugee camp,
as well as her first meeting with her husband,
and their brief, idyllic visit to his native
village. Now pregnant and a widow, she is a woman
``dressed in black'' trying to understand that
these are the times of bitterness, but that there
``will be times of beauty and light.'' The second
piece, the title story, is set in war-torn
Beirut�a place where, after a night's
bombardment, a mother notices in horror a white
hair on her baby's head. A range of voices, the
people who frequent Suad's flower- filled balcony
in the Fakihani district, tell about the
Tunisian- born fighter Umar, Suad's husband, who
survived a near-fatal illness, then died in a
bomb blast. Last, ``The Canary and the Sea'' is
the memoir of a young man whose family was exiled
from the West Bank--``the country that was beyond
my reach''--only to become a prisoner of war in
Israel, exchanged later for an Israeli, and then,
compounding the pain of exile once back in
Beirut, expelled to Tunisia. Unapologetically
partisan, but the writing is good enough to rise
above politics and tell moving tales of a
troubled people living in an even more troubled
place.

FICTION OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD

ALI, TARIQ. STONE WOMAN. (2000)

The dying glow of the decadent Ottoman empire,
circa 1899, is reflected in the plots, betrayals,
lusts and loves of a once noble Turkish family.
The third installment in Ali's Islamic Quartet
(Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, The Book of
Saladin), exploring the conflict between
Christian and Islamic civilizations across the
centuries.

ANDRIC, IVO. BRIDGE ON THE DRINA. (1959)
A beautifully written account of the Balkan
people since the sixteenth century, is told from
a small town perspective.

BADR, LIYANAH. A BALCONY OVER THE FAKIHANI.
(1997)
Interwoven accounts of Palestinians in exile,
set mainly in Beirut.

BENARD, CHERYL. MOGHUL BUFFET. (1998)
Plots and subplots keep the reader in suspense
in this comic mystery set in Pakistan.

BOWLES, PAUL. A DISTANT EPISODE: THE SELECTED
STORIES. (1988)

FAWAL, IBRAHIM. ON THE HILLS OF GOD. (1998)
A plea for peace and understanding in novel
form, is told from a Palestinian perspective
relating to the founding of Israel.

GAVRON, DANIEL. PILGRIMS�. (2000)
A small Christian-owned hotel in Jerusalem
becomes a meeting place for religious factions
fighting for dominance.

HAMILTON, MASHA. STAIRCASE OF A THOUSAND STEPS.
(2001, reissue edition)
Past and present mesh in this coming of age
story set in Jordan about Jammana, a village girl
with the psychic gift of her ancestors.

HOYT, EDWIN P. VOICE OF ALLAH. (1970)
This fictionalized life of Mohammed, founder of
Islam, clearly and accurately depicts his career
as military leader and prophet, as well as
describes the traditions of the Muslim way of
life.

KAZAN, FRANCES. HALIDE�S GIFT. (2001)
This novel depicts the life of Halide Edib, who
was a nineteenth century Turkish woman with the
ability to see and hear the dead, and who also
defied tradition to become the first educated
Turkish woman in history.

KHASHOGGI, SOHEIR. MIRAGE. (1996)
Prepared by a life of ease for a fairy tale
wedding and a wonderful handsome prince, Amira is
shocked when she confronts a violent and abusive
groom. This is the story of her escape.

KHUSHWANT SINGH. TRAIN TO PAKISTAN. (1988)
This is the story of real people caught in the
chaos during the partitioning of India.

MAHFOUZ, NAGUIB. ARABIAN NIGHTS AND DAYS. (1995)
A modern day Sheharazade�s tales describes the
plots and dreams of the people who visit the
�Caf� of Emirs.�

MAHFOUZ, NAGUIB. THE CAIRO TRILOGY (PALACE WALK,
PALACE OF DESIRE, SUGAR STREET)
The history of colonial Egypt is told by three
generations of a family headed by the tyrannical
Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad.

MANTEL, HILARY. EIGHT MONTHS ON GHAZZAH STREET.
(1997)
Frances Shore joins her engineer husband in a
Saudi city and is plunged into a dark world of
repression and intrigue.

NAHAI, GINA BARKHORDAR. CRY OF THE PEACOCK.
(1991)
A 116-year-old woman, jailed by the Islamic
Revolutionary guard, tells about the
transformation of old Persia into Shiite Iran.

PAMUK, ORHAN. MY NAME IS RED. (2001)
Set in sixteenth century Turkey, this novel is a
murder mystery, a book of ideas about Islam and
art, and a beautiful love story.

RACHLIN, NAHID. MARRIED TO A STRANGER. (1993)
A tale of first love is set in Iran against the
background of revolution and repression.

RIFAAT, ALIFA. DISTANT VIEW OF A MINARET. (1985)
Women�s lives in Muslim society are illuminated
in these subtle short stories set in Egypt.

RUSHDIE, SALMAN. EAST-WEST: STORIES. (1994)
Nine stories set in Rushdie�s native Pakistan
depicting the wide differences and surprising
similarities between Eastern and Western
cultures.

SAID, KURBAN. ALI AND NINO. (1996)
This timeless story relates the love between an
Azerbaijani Muslim boy and a Georgian Christian
girl during the rise of the Soviet Union.

SHAYKH, HANAN. I SWEEP THE SUN OFF ROOFTOPS.
(1998)
The characters of these stories by Lebanese
author Shaykh, illuminate the complexities of
Arab people poised on the brink of modernity
while still held by the familiarity of their
traditions.

SALIH, AL-TAYEB. THE WEDDING OF ZEIN AND OTHER
STORIES. (1968)
These modern fables take place in a Muslim
village in Sudan and show the universality of
small town life.

SIDHWA, BAPSI. CRACKING INDIA. (1991)
Racial, ethnic and religious strife are viewed
through a young girl�s eyes during the
partitioning of India.

SOUEIF, AHDAF. MAP OF LOVE. (1999)
A family saga that simultaneously traces Egypt�s
troubled history and tells a complex story of
love.

ISLAMIC FICTION FOR YOUNG ADULTS

CARMI, DANIELLA. SAMIR AND YONATAN. (2000)
Samir, a Palestinian boy, is sent for surgery to
a hospital where he has two otherworldly
experiences, making friends with an Israeli boy,
Yonatan, and traveling with him to Mars where
Samir finds peace about his brother�s death in
the war.

KHAN, RUKHSANA. THE ROSES IN MY CARPETS. (1998)
When a young boy and his mother and sister come
to a camp to escape the war in Afghanistan, he
finds some comfort in the beauty of the carpets
he is learning to weave.

LAIRD, ELIZABETH. KISS THE DUST. (1992)
Her father�s involvement with the Kurdish
resistance movement in Iraq forces
thirteen-year-old Tara to flee with her family
over the border into Iran, where they face an
unknown future.

LEVINE, ANNA. RUNNING ON EGGS. (1999)
When Karen and Yasmine become friends as well as
members of a mixed Arab and Jewish track team in
Israel, relatives and friends of both girls
disapprove of the relationship.

STAPLES, SUZANNE FISHER. SHABANU: DAUGHTER OF THE
WIND. (1989)
(Sequel: Haveli (1993))
When the eleven-year-old daughter of a Pakistani
desert nomad is pledged in marriage to an older
man, she must either accept the decision or risk
the consequences of defying her father�s wishes.

TEMPLE, FRANCES. THE BEDUINS� GAZELLE. (1996)
In 1302, two cousins of the nomadic Beni Khalid
tribe who are betrothed become separated by
political intrigue between warring tribes.

=====
David Wright Seattle Public Library

=====
David Wright Seattle Public Library

__________________________________________________
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FROM: "Sarah Herlache" <[removed]@ci.glendale.az.us>
REC'D: 2/12/03, 6:37 PM

Sarah Herlache
Foothills Library
Glendale, Arizona

>>> [removed]@mail.selco.lib.mn.us 02/12/03 15:48 PM >>>
We just got a reading group going at our library, and they want to read
about the Middle East for our April meeting. I've found lots of
nonfiction, but they also want some fiction titles. Does anyone have
any recommendations for fiction dealing with the cultural and social
issues of the Middle East? The only one I came up with so far was The
Source, by Michener. Thanks.
Robin Youngerman
Winona Public Library
Winona, MN

......................................................................
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FROM: [removed]@msln.net
REC'D: 2/12/03, 7:24 PM

~ Molly Wms.
--
Molly Williams
Volunteer, Waterboro Public Library, Maine
WPL: http://www.waterborolibrary.org/index.htm
Daily Weblog: http://www.waterborolibrary.org/blog.htm

Quoting Laura Dudnik <[removed]@epl.org>:

> For our list of literature of the Middle East, see
> http://www.epl.org/library/bibliographies/mid-east.html
>
> -Laura Dudnik
> Evanston Public Library
> Evanston, IL 60201
>
> At 04:51 PM 2/12/03 -0600, you wrote:
> >We just got a reading group going at our library, and they want to read
> >about the Middle East for our April meeting. I've found lots of
> >nonfiction, but they also want some fiction titles. Does anyone have
> >any recommendations for fiction dealing with the cultural and social
> >issues of the Middle East? The only one I came up with so far was The
> >Source, by Michener. Thanks.
> >Robin Youngerman
> >Winona Public Library
> >Winona, MN

FROM: "Forister, Ann" <[removed]@roseville.ca.us>
REC'D: 2/12/03, 8:39 PM

Robin wrote:
We just got a reading group going at our library, and they want to read
> about the Middle East for our April meeting. I've found lots of
> nonfiction, but they also want some fiction titles. Does anyone have
> any recommendations for fiction dealing with the cultural and social
> issues of the Middle East? The only one I came up with so far was The
> Source, by Michener. Thanks.
>

Ann Forister
Reference Librarian
Roseville Public Library
Roseville, CA

FROM: "BookBitch" <[removed]@yahoo.com>
REC'D: 2/12/03, 9:22 PM

Stacy Alesi
Southwest County Regional Library
Palm Beach County Library System
www.pbclibrary.org

I am the BookBitch
www.bookbitch.com <http://www.bookbitch.com/>
Win a copy of RESURRECTION MEN
by Ian Rankin, Feb. 1-28, 2003

FROM: [removed]@aol.com
REC'D: 2/13/03, 2:01 AM

Binnie Syril Braunstein
romance novelist/former librarian

In a message dated 2/12/2003 5:48:34 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[removed]@mail.selco.lib.mn.us writes:

FROM: "Robin Deffendall" <[removed]@cumberland.lib.nc.us>
REC'D: 2/13/03, 8:50 AM

Robin Deffendall
Bordeaux Branch Library
Cumberland County Public Library and Information Center
Fayetteville, NC

-----Original Message-----
From: [removed]@maillist.webrary.org
[[removed]@maillist.webrary.org]On Behalf Of Lisa Colcord
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 6:16 PM
To: Fiction_L
Subject: Re: Middle East fiction

Shabanu by Suzanne Fisher Staples is YA (sometimes J) but is a very good
book that takes place in Pakistan.

Lisa

Lisa Colcord
Librarian
Glendale Public library
Glendale, AZ

....my views are my own....

-The secret to life is enjoying the passage of time- James Taylor

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FROM: Candice Michalik <[removed]@yahoo.com>
REC'D: 2/13/03, 9:01 AM

One rainy night at a Jerusalem checkpoint, Israeli
Lieutenant Ari Doron is ordered to refuse passage to a
young Palestinian mother and her sick boy. The
incident leads to a series of riots, and Doron finds
himself pulled into the bitter political aftermath as
battles and bus bombs explode around him.

He is drawn to Marina, the boy's American-born mother.
And though she is on the other side of the bloody
struggle, she finds herself thinking of Doron as "her
soldier." In another place, at another time, they
might have been lovers, but here their story moves
toward a tragic conclusion with the kind of
inevitability that war imposes.

Marina's father, an eminent Boston heart specialist
and an outspoken Palestinian intellectual, is also
sucked into the conflict he thought he had left behind
long ago. Now, back in the streets of his youth, he
must choose whether to support his old comrades as
they manipulate his grandson's story in an ugly
propaganda campaign, or break with them and wreck his
last remaining childhood friendship.

Caught in history's terrible catastrophe, all three
become pawns for larger, inescapable forces.

=====
Candice Michalik
Reference Librarian
Lynchburg Public Library
Lynchburg, VA
[removed]@yahoo.com

__________________________________________________
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Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day
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FROM: Spencer Ms Martha <[removed]@usmc-mccs.org>
REC'D: 2/13/03, 9:43 AM

Martha

-----Original Message-----
From: RYOUNGERMAN [[removed]@mail.selco.lib.mn.us]
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 5:52 PM
To: Fiction_L
Subject: Middle East fiction

......................................................................
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FROM: "Siewert, Karl" <[removed]@tulsalibrary.org>
REC'D: 2/13/03, 9:53 AM

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
> Karl G. Siewert, MLIS | 918-250-7307 <
> Business Reference Librarian | [removed]@ <
> Hardesty Regional Library | tulsalibrary <
> Tulsa City-County Library System | .org <
>--------------------------------------------------<
> I know you believe you understand what you <
> think I said, but I'm not sure you realize <
> that what you heard is not what I meant. <
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject: Middle East fiction
> From: "RYOUNGERMAN" <[removed]@mail.selco.lib.mn.us>
> Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 16:51:45 -0600
>
> We just got a reading group going at our library, and they
> want to read
> about the Middle East for our April meeting. I've found lots of
> nonfiction, but they also want some fiction titles. Does anyone have
> any recommendations for fiction dealing with the cultural and social
> issues of the Middle East? The only one I came up with so far was The
> Source, by Michener. Thanks.
> Robin Youngerman
> Winona Public Library
> Winona, MN
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

FROM: [removed]@juno.com
REC'D: 2/13/03, 10:58 AM

"The Rock : A Tale of Seventh Century Jerusalem", by Kanan Makiya, received an excellent review from Booklist a couple of years ago. It's described as a historical novel set in a time when there was less conflict between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. The protagonist is the architect of the Dome of the Rock.

Orianna Fallaci is not from the Middle East herself, but has had a long journalistic and personal interest in the area, which is reflected in her 1992 novel "Inshallah" as well as her more recent and controversial opinion piece "The Rage and the Pride".

"Sitt Marie Rose", by Lebanese author Etel Adnan, offers a grim but informative insider's view of the ongoing turmoil in Beirut. The protagonist is a young Christian teacher, of relatively modern, Western views, who becomes entangled in the area's political and tribal conflicts.

I will once more recommend Susan Atefat-Peckham's "That Kind of Sleep", winner of the National Poetry Series in 2000, in case anyone in your group is interested in poetry. Her poems are a fascinating look at Iranian family life from the perspective of a young woman with a dual background in both modern American and traditional Iranian culture.

Of course, the poems of the Sufi mystic Rumi (Maulana Jalal al-din Rumi), to which "that kind of sleep" alludes, might also be of interest to the more mystically or poetically inclined, although at this point I may be straying from the political and social interests that the original query mentioned.

Bradley A. Scott

________________________________________________________________
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FROM: Rosalind Reisner <[removed]@comcast.net>
REC'D: 2/13/03, 9:23 PM

Rosalind Reisner
[removed]@comcast.net

FROM: "Bonnie Zeitlin" <[removed]@webrary.org>
REC'D: 2/14/03, 2:17 PM

Bonnie Zeitlin
Reference Librarian
Morton Grove Public Library
Morton Grove, IL
(847) 965-4220
[removed]@webrary.org
http://www.webrary.org
Opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect
official Library policy.

FROM: RYOUNGERMAN <[removed]@mail.selco.lib.mn.us>
REC'D: 2/15/03, 3:30 PM

Fiction Relating to the Middle East:

Sitt Marie Rose Adnan, Etel
Stone Woman Ali, Tariq
Bridge on the Drina Andric, Ivo
That Kind of Sleep Atefat-Peckham, Susan
A Balcony Over the Fakihani Badr, Liyanah
Moghul Buffet Benard, Cheryl
A Distant Episode:
The Selected Stories Bowles, Paul
The First Stone Briley, John
Little America Bromell, Henry
Abu and the Angel Cohen Campbell, Claude
Hayati My Life Cooke, Miriam
The Last Summer of Reason Djaout, Tahar
The Alexandria Quartet: Justine,
Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea Durrell, Lawrence
Inshallah Fallaci, Orianna
On the Hills of God Fawal, Ibrahim
Pilgrims� Gavron, Daniel
The Pickup Gordimer, Nadine
Smile of the Lamb Grossman, David
Staircase of a Thousand Steps Hamilton, Masha
The Mulberry Empire Henscher, Phillip
The Fairest Among Women Horn, Shifra
Voice of Allah Hoyt, Edwin P.
In Search of Walid Masoud Jabra, Jabra Ibrahim
Persian Nights Johnson, Diane
Palestine�s Children: Returning to
Haifa & Other Stories Kanafani, Ghassan
Halide�s Gift Kazan, Frances
The Butcher�s Theater Kellerman, Jonathon
Mirage Khashoggi, Soheir
Honor Lost Khouri, Norma
Train to Pakistan Khushwant, Singh
The Walls of Jericho Land, Jon
Arabian Nights and Days Mahfouz, Naguib
The Beggar Mahfouz, Naguib
The Beginning and the End Mahfouz, Naguib
The Cairo Trilogy:
Palace Walk, Palace of Desire,
Sugar Street Mahfouz, Naguib
Children of the Alley Mahfouz, Naguib
The Harafish Mahfouz, Naguib
Midaq Alley Mahfouz, Naguib
Respected Sir Manfouz, Naguib
The Search Mahfouz, Naguib
The Time and the Place
and Other Stories Mahfouz, Naguib
Wedding Song Mahfouz, Naguib
The Rock: A Tale of Seventh
Century Jerusalem Makiya, Kanan
Eight Months on Ghazzah Street Mantel, Hilary
The Source Michener, James
Heavenly Heights Miller, Risa
Cry of the Peacock Nahai, Gina Barkhordar
The Hill of Evil Counsel Oz, Amos
Panther in the Basement Oz, Amos
My Name is Red Pamuk, Orhan
Married to a Stranger Rachlin, Nahid
Distant View of a Minaret: and
Other Stories Rifaat, Alifa
East-West: Stories Rushdie, Salman
Ali and Nino Said, Kurban
Damascus Nights Schami, Rafik
I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops Shaykh, Hanan
The Wedding of Zein and
Other Stories Salih, Al-Tayeb
Cracking India Sidhwa, Bapsi
The Kermanshah Transfer: A Novel
Of Middle Eastern Intrigue Sigel, Efrem
The Thirteenth Hour Sofer, Barbara
The Map of Love Soueif, Ahdaf
Damascus Gate Stone, Robert
Exodus Uris, Leon
Topaz Uris, Leon
Martyr�s Crossing Wilentz, Amy

Fiction for Young Adults:

The Arabian Nights
Samir and Yonatan Carmi, Daniella
The Roses in My Carpets Khan, Rukhsana
Kiss the Dust Laird, Elizabeth
Running on Eggs Levine, Anna
Habibi Nye, Naomi Shihab
Haveli: Staples, Suzanne Fisher
Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind Staples, Suzanne Fisher
The Bedouins� Gazelle Temple, Frances

Memoirs:

Out of Egypt Aciman, Andre
Tales of Two Cities: A Persian
Memoir Milani, Abbas

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