The Hakawati

Pan Macmillan, 2008. Trade Paperback. Near Fine. Trade Paperback. 513 pages. *** PUBLISHING DETAILS: Pan Macmillan, 2008. *** CONDITION: This book is in near fine condition. More specifically: Covers have no creasing or wear. Spine is uncreased. . Pages are lightly tanned. This book is an unread copy. *** ABOUT THIS BOOK: In 2003, Osama al-Kharrat returns to Beirut after many years in America to stand vigil at his father's deathbed. 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." *** Quantity Available: 7. Category: Fiction; Action & Adventure; ISBN/EAN: 9780330456203. Inventory No: 10022004.. 9780330456203