The Hakawati

Description:

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.From the Trade Paperback edition.

subjects: Lebanon, fiction,  Fiction, general,  Fiction,  Storytellers,  New York Times reviewed,  Gossip,  Fiction, war & military,  Middle east, fiction,  Storytelling,  Social conditions,  Amor en la literatura,  Literatura estadounidense,  Novela de ciencia ficción,  Novela fantástica

People: Toni Hill

Places: Middle East