The Hakawati - Alameddine Rabih - 2008

DESCRIPTION

513 pages. Multiple copies of this title available. This book is an unread copy. Covers have no creasing or wear. Spine is uncreased. Pages are lightly tanned. 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. By: Alameddine Rabih Year: 2008 Visit our website to view thousands more products like this and order online at: