Middle East Books

When I was a very little girl, we lived in Indonesia and were in Japanese concentration camps during WWII.
I was interested in reading this book, because my brother was taken away at 11 and sent to a men's camp all by himself. I wanted to know what he had gone through.
This book will tell you a little of what we all went through in those years. It is written from a young boys view point and that was helpful to keep it less of a heavy read.
I think very few people know how many of us suffered hunger and illness in POW camps under the Japanese. It is history and hopefully we won't have to re-live this.

A decided to read this book after I heard the news that a movie based on it staring Jane Seymour will be filming next year. I read it only to better understand the movie, and was extremely surprised at what an excellent story I found it to be. It is told from the perspective of a little boy, about his struggles and triumphs, and the little things that help him cope with life in a concentration camp run by Japanese. If you think this is your typical "WW II survivor story", guess again. As I was reading I forgot the book was about a concentration camp. It became the story of a ordinary boy and his mother, and their day-to-day life amidst a horrific background. The harsh reality is it is a true story. I hope the movie does it justice. This book is extremely under-rated. It is up to par with Oprah's book club books. Please read it, and I think you will be surprised. If anyone knows how I can contact the author, please let me know.

The story is beyond an ugliness of human nature.How any one dare to challenge "How about Hiroshima ?" The boy is above all these and almost religius. The Japanese Emperor and the Governmentaologized for the undue cruelities inflickted on the internees, but the most interesting thing is that they did no do so to their own people who were victims themselves under the Japanese Military systems.

i am 16 years old and read this book for the first time last year. i truly enjoyed reading the book. i am not into books which have a difficult plot or a lot of long words but anyone can undersatnd this book. i cant imagine what the boy would have went through and had to keep on reminding myself that this actually happened. i definitely do not think that this book is given the credit in which it is worth. reading the book makes you realise what a good life you have compared to what the boy went through. so go out and read the book now. p.s. have a box of tissues ready!!!

I have read few dozens of books related to Persian Gulf War 1991. The book is rated the best hardcore book full of precious military experience and insight. If you want to know about what really happened to XVIII airborne corps in 1990-1991, it is a must read.

Tom Clancy-like in its telling, Toomey's tale is a great read - simultaneously a broad and a detailed account of the XVIII Airborne Corps in the 1991 Gulf War.

Soldiers' testimonies resonate the feel of the battlefield -

"Major Jerry Bolzak was in his battalion TOC sipping a cup of MRE cocoa when `all of a sudden there was this `KAWOOM,' and the whole flipping tent shook like crazy, map boards falling off.'"

Or of the operational perspective at the tactical level (this of the French 6th Light Armored Division) -

"H-hour had been set for 1400, but an overcast sky and a light rain delayed the start of the assault. At 1430, the weather had improved enough to allow a squadron of A-10s and 3rd RHC to make their target runs. The A-10 Warthogs went in first, dropping precision munitions onto hangers and bunkers, followed by the Gazelles with their HOT missiles...."

Or the big picture: a chapter overview of "Doctrine," "The Corps Plan," "Hurdles," "Execution," "XVIII Airborne Corps Deception Plan," "The Corps Rear Command Post," "The Reserve Components," and "Rear Detachments."

Toomey weaves in soldiers' humor (at least in retrospect it's funny), this as related by the just-arrived and bedded-down-in-a-hanger Commander 1-505th -

"About 12:30 that night, in comes this truck with these little bags of Hardees hamburgers. Same damn s*** again. So we wake everybody up to eat. About an hour later, I was trying to get some rest and my PA says, `Sir, it's an emergency. Guys have diarrhea and there's no place to s***.'"

Thoroughly documented - tactical maps, over 150 pages of footnotes (some column-long footnotes themselves tell a story), troop lists, glossary, & references - the narrative is a rare page-turner of a history. Whether you're a serious student seeking lessons learned or a recreational reader in need of a good beach book, you'll be pleased with Toomey's "...Planning to Victory."

As a Gulf War veteran, I thought I knew what had happened. This book provided information I had not known. I feel more qualified to discuss my part in this war now that I fully understand the role of the XVIII Airborne Corps.

I fought in Desert Storm with the XVIIIth Airborne Corps. This is the first book I've read that covers the essential role filled by the XVIIIth Airborne Corps in the defense of Saudi Arabia and the liberation of Kuwait. Col. Toomey presents a thoroughly researched book that presents a complete picture of both Desert Shield and Desert Storm to include the highlights and pitfalls encountered during the largest mobilization and land battle since WWII. He not only covered the Combat Arms viewpoints but also those of the Support Personnel and those who must remain behind and run the Rear Detachments.
It was enjoyable to read a history book and say to myself "I've been there!" or "I remember that battle!" or "I know that person, I worked with him!". The XVIII Airborne Corps in Desert Storm: From Planning to Victory is by far one of the best books written on the Gulf War, I was thoroughly engrossed in it and strongly recommend it. This book is an absolute must have for those who fought in Desert Storm, but also would be enjoyed by anyone who has served in the Military is a Military enthusiast.

I've tried several courses: math, science, history and language. My kids especially love the Sign Language cards! I purchased all three card sets and the CD-software. The photographs are more realistic than drawings which you mostly find in ASL products. Great for younger kids too. My daughter's using them in her Brownie troupe and my three-year-old has picked up on some of the alphabet and numbers already. My older son has some mild learning disabilities and looking at a page in a book with so much information all together makes him nervous. I put one card at a time on a cleared table. It helps him focus and that gives him more confidence. People have been making or using flash cards forever, and I think they always will be no matter how fancy computers and software gets (but the Exambusters software is good too). I've recommended them to others.

In junior high, my son got a head start on high school courses and that helped him get better grades. He used both cards and CD. My son liked the software, so he studied more than he would have from a book. Learning is hard work, but the exambusters made him feel like it's not quite so bad. The software is well-laid out, colorful, and user-friendly. The messages they give when they score the tests are amusing.

I bought several courses. The cards offer basic concepts in small bites. The information was relevant to what was presented by my teacher. The cards and CD's gave good review before exams and a head start at the start of the new school year. The cards had a lot of questions; you can carry them in your pocket and learn a few each day. The software was easy to use. It is like the cards but on the screen. You can take a test or just review. Front is question, click for answer on back of card. The software can also show the cards on the screen at random, first the question, then the answer. They change every few seconds. That keeps you reading and wondering what's coming up next. It's entertaining while you're studying.

I have so many wonderful comments about this book that they would not fit on this page. This was a gripping, interesting story full of detail and flowing words. The historical content is melded with the story line so well that you don't realize that you are learning about history at the same time. I was so intrigued by the beautiful translation by the author's daughter, who is also a Texan Persian who is highly educated and has attended school in Edinborough and LSU (what a range). Never a dull moment and a MUST READ!

This masterpiece deserves much exposure and credit. Translated by the daughter of the author, the words flow off of the page to form a beautiful story. Not only does it include historical facts about Iran, but it demonstrates to the reader what daily life was like in the time period. I am so thankful that this book is available to English readers. A must for any library!

An immense effort by Nayer Mostofi Glen who has done an excellent job translating her father's memoirs from Persian to English. Mr. Abdollah Mostofi came from a long line of royal "Mostofis" (chief accountant/tax collectors) of the Qajar dynasty. His family served in this capacity from the era of Agha Mohammad Khan - the founder of the Qajar dynasty - until the twentieth century when Abdollah Mostofi inherited his family trait. This incredible man lived and served his country from Nasser e-Din Shah's era through Reza Shah Pahlavi's reign (five kings and two dynasties).

Let me first and foremost clarify that all that Mr. Mostofi wrote was from his memory. If you have an eye for bibliographies, you will not find it in these books (a set of 3 books). But, rest assured that what this book lacks in academic structure, it makes up for in the real picture of life it gives you of Persia at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Abdollah Mostofi was able to recall with astounding detail people's attitudes, children's folk songs which poked fun at the Shahs, street names, cultural mannerisms, the personality of the Kings, and the drastic changes that the twentieth century brought about in Iran.

My only criticism is that the title of the book should not have been literally translated from its Persian text. This book is a memoir; it is not a true history book - at least not in the academic context/meaning of the word. It is not an administrative history of the Qajar period, it is the life of a high ranking administrator (Mostofi, Judge, Ambassador, ...). But in all fairness, Abdollah Mostofi's life, his explanations of why major historical events during his life occurred, and how it impacted the people of Persia from the Shah down to the peasants, makes his work invaluable. Mostofi takes you through a past that most Iranians can't even relate to anymore. This is a great book of life, a life that will now live forever within the pages of Abdollah Mostofi's memoirs and the minds of all who read it.

This book describes the journey that the author and his wife took together from their home in New York City to distant Arabia in the 1920s. At the beginning of the book, Seabrook describes some of his motivations for making the trip. He tells us that he had always been fascinated with Arabia, ever since he was a child. He also provides us with perhaps the best definition of simple tourism I have ever encountered, "I went for no useful, moral, scholarly, political humanitarian, or reasonable purpose whatsoever. I went for the joy of it, and because I believed I should love it." As we read further, however, it begins to become clear that perhaps Seabrook did have an ulterior motive after all. Whether by design or by fate, Seabrook's itinerary took him from one religious leader to another. Even when the persons he was staying with were not known primarily for their religious leadership, Seabrook constantly plied them with questions about their faith. He was a seeker, on a pilgrimage to learn all he could from the great variety of men of faith in the Middle East.

Seabrook rode with the Bedouins in the desert, and visited with the Druses in the mountains of Syria. He plied a Sufi sheikh with a thousand questions, and then went on to be a guest of the Yezidees, a tribe of devil-worshipers. Seabrook was primed for adventure, and had learned enough Arabic before his trip to get by without a translator. He was passionate about religious discussion, and open to trying new customs, including even reciting the Muslim prayer which serves to indicate adoption of the faith. In doing so, he had thus converted to Islam, although there is little in the remainder of the book to demonstrate that he had been serious about this undertaking. Later in the book, he interviews the Sufi Sheikh el Melewi and hears the answer he had perhaps been seeking, "No words, my son, can impart from one man to another the final secret. For God is the divine harmony in all things-in the circling of the earth and stars, in the measured heart-beats of the human body, in the rhythmic act of procreation; in fire and water, in the rolling thunder and rushing winds; in the flight and songs of birds or tiniest insects; in the breath of life itself as the air is drawn into the lungs and expelled through the nostrils. All paths can lead to God, and each must choose the one seeming best for him."

The book is illustrated with numerous pen-and-ink drawings, supplemented by several sections of black-and-white plates. In addition to Seabrook's musings on religious topics, he also describes the customs of the tribes he visited with, many of which have changed greatly since his time. The book provides a fascinating window into a time and place that have passed almost entirely from memory.

The first time I read this book I was stunned by its beauty and power. I held off re-reading it for a decade to preserve the impact of reading it anew. It is a marvellous travelogue of one man's journey into the hospitality and culture of the desert, and a revelation of religious discovery which mocks all intolerance. Well worth reading and cherishing.

This book does not simply report, it enlightens. Seabrook is a skillful author who masterfully relates the culture of the Arabian people he befriends. He tells dozens of fascinating stories, which he learns from his honorable hosts (I particularly enjoyed the tale of Gutne's eyes). The condition and station of women is written about, and the reasons for different cultural practices, such as honor killings in the Druse culture, are examined. Rather than judging these people and presenting women's oppression as an element of a less advanced culture, Seabrook objectively writes the views that his new comrades present. Certain practices begin to make sense as the reasons different cultures adopted them are made clear. While I could not possibly condone killing someone for marrying outside of one's own race, I could begin to understand the historical context that fostered the idea. Seabrook also writes about modesty, methods of cleanliness, medicinal practices, and what is eaten. Fermented goat's milk and rice are standard fare. The description of feminine beauty and dress in this story are simply unparalleled. "A two-year-old baby daughter was like a little doll or a princess from some fairy-tale. Her eyelids were blackened with kohl; her face was painted, delicately and with art; her hair was twined with bright coins and jewels; her finger-tips were stained pink with henna like the rosy dawn." Another attribute of this book is its approach to religion. Seabrook seeks out as many truths as the religious sects are willing to release. He writes about the rumors he hears, the holy men he meets, the interpretations his traveling partners offer, and the ceremonies he witnesses. In the end, I was left with the impression that we all share the same God, and Seabrook makes this argument without forcing it down the reader's throat. This was a splendid, engaging read, and I highly recommend it.

Excerpts from Lemar-Aftaab Magazine's Review

PLEASE VISIT: :

The one major difference between the two was that Baihaqi was a historian whose writing served the court of the Ghaznavids kings. Ghobar was imprisoned by the government for writing truths and voicing his opinions. Whereas Baihaqi received golden treasures and prestige for writing history in favor of the royal court, Ghobar's unbiased writings prompted the ruling governing body to marginalize him and his family to live in fear of their lives from day-to-day. Ghobar has become a capstone for most historians who specialized on Afghanistan. Many Afghans came to realize his greatness after his death. Now, thousands of Afghans rely on Ghobar's writing style and content to learn important historical facts. Habibi (1984) puts Ghobar's contribution into perspective: "Ghobar's seal is cast on Afghan movements in the second half of the 20th century."

Since his writings were earth shattering, some envious and intransigents tried defaming and slandering him by mislabeling him into a certain way of thinking. The truth of the matter is that he was neither a right-wing fanatic nor a left-wing revolutionary. He was a progressive intellectual whose primary objective was to peacefully reform the system.

Ghobar had the patriotic ambition of reconciling Afghanistan's past, present, and future. He wrote: "Until the onslaught of Gengiz Khan, Afghanistan was the shining star of the Islamic world. Neither in cultural level nor in the stage of civilization had she any equal among the Muslim countries" (Gregorian, 1969, Page 22). Ghobar was a strong advocate of justice, civil liberties, and reforming the strict censorship policies. Afghanistan dar Masir-e Tarikh has been widely associated with the movement for a free press and none censorship. Just as activist intellectuals such King, Gandhi, Mandela, and even passivist intellectuals were being punished for exercising their civil rights, Ghobar also became a victim during the regime's informal intellectual apartheid, genocide, and exile campaign. Ghobar along with his brothers, his cousins were imprisoned in the jails of Saira-e Mothi in Kabul. Among the 16,000 captives, they were political prisoners from 1933 to 1935. From 1935 to 1942, they were sent to exile in Bala Baluk, Farah.

In 1952-1956, Ghobar again ended up as a political prison of the regime. Because he participated in a peaceful public protest urging democratic parliamentary elections. This time in prison he conceived the idea of writing the epic. Ghobar's book unveiled a whole world of state oppression, corruption, and criticized the extreme and sometimes brutal measures taken by the government.

During P.M. Maiwandwal in 1967, Ghobar's book was approved for publication. Since the monarchy did not permit private publication houses, the book was to be published in the government-publishing house located in Kabul. According to Wala (2000), Deparment Head for, Minister Benawa designated him to publish the book at the government-printing house. Major figures of Afghan literature oversaw his work and approved of it such as Ahmad Ali Kohzad, Ahmad Naimi, and Muhammad Gul-ab Nangahari. When the ruling elite replaced P.M. Maiwandwal, the book was officially announced banned during a meeting. The banning of the book without any legal or court process did not fair well with intellectuals.

Ghobar has been noted to say, "Legally, the history book I have written must be released. The government can then use its power to commission writers who can distort the facts and history of the past in response of my book."

Although initially printed by the government press, the ruling elite banned it. George Bernard Shaw put it best: "Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books nobody reads."

The government's biases against pedagogy resulted from fears that people will become socially literate, heighten their sense of social consciousness, and transform their situation and society. However, the government ignored that positive results cannot be expected from political repression, which fail to respect the particular view of the world held by the people. The rulers made empty promises ensuring justice and democracy, but behind the scene was law breaking and corruption. Conspiracy and plotting became common and innocent intellectuals were sent off to fill prison cells. They were individuals who only exercised their rights to speak and write and had not committed any crime. However, even without a case nor judgment against them, these intellectuals and their relatives spent years in the prison cells where they were subjected to all methods of torture. Ironically, it so happened that the place of patriotic and heroic intellectual was in prison and not in the governing bodies of the country. It was these infringements of civil liberties and censorship that were the main causes of the decay of the regime.

Early in 1978, after unsuccessful treatments resulted in his parting of this world in West Germany on February 18, 1978. Ghobar laid to rest in Shohada-e Saliheen. On his burial tablet it is written: Do not tell me to hold my tongue! Oh fate, there are still 1,000 unsaid passages running through my head.

Unlike other questionable intellectuals who have become entrepreneurs that give a slanted historical interpretation based on their ethnic, religious, regional incentives, Ghobar praises and criticizes all the players of the game.

Ghobar was a very learned person, whose research about the period prior to his lifetime was not only based on his knowledge but on vast archives. His book is first of its kind in that it is the most scholarly and scientific in format and content. After forty years, his book is still a popular reference piece among Afghans no matter wherever they lie along the political spectrum: "Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas," Whitney Griswold.

Although Ghobar had to endure constant struggle and courage in the face of dire situations, today his eternal radiance shines like a heavenly star onto Afghanistan's literary and political society.

Excerpts take from an email letter started by Afghans Solidarity
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MGM Ghobar's first book "Afghanistan dar massir e tarikh" is very informative, and it is widely considered a valuable history book written by an Afghan. His second book, however, is mostly based on his personal views.

As a political activist, he strongly opposed the government of Nadir shah, Hashim khan, Shah Mahmood Khan, and Daud Khan. His intentions, in his 2nd book, was to weaken and possibly topple those governments by generating a mass resentment towards the government. He was imprisoned for few year and sent to exile in southern part of Afghanistan. It is easy to sense throughout his book a feeling of revenge. He continuously concentrates on negative aspects of the government policies and actions.

This is an example of how a government used force to do injustice to its opposition and how an individual make use of pen to take revenge.

It important that we avoid getting caught in the fire and as a result form extreme opinions.

There is a good critique (in Farsi) by Negargar on MGM Ghobar's
second book. Negargar points out major differenced between Ghobar's 1st and 2nd book. He tries to prove that the 2nd book is not 100% Ghobar's writings. He thinks a lot has been added to his original writings.

Khalid Shalizi

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About the MGM Ghobar's book, I urge caution. Ghobar's first book "Afghanistan Daar Maseer'e Tarikh Vol 1", is one of the best history books available on Afghanistan. While I read the second volume with great interest (over a weekend) and found it deeply moving, I would like to point out that this volume is more of a personal journal, rather than a scholarly researched
history book. The story about "Charkhi" family is true, but as far as I know, noone has any stories that either supports or rejects any of the other ones, and since Afghanistan doesn't have many solid historians, this is as good as it will have to get for now. If EC members' disagree, I can take criticism OK, so I would love to hear other members' perspectives on this book. I should point out that Donya jaan Ghobar, MGM's daughter, is a (silent) member of AS. She is a physician, poet, writer, painter and sculptor, a pretty amazing woman. I have met Hashamt, the publisher and MGM's son, on a number of occasions and been to their house in VA. They are fantastic Afghans!

Farhad Ahad

I have read many books about Afghan History, written by notable Afghans and foreign writers, but none have equaled Ghobar's Book. Afghanistan in the Course of History captures the fear, helplessness, and despair that the people of Afghanistan had to endure under the Monarchy system. Ghober's vivid and chilling description of the prison cells, torture chambers, Nadir Shah's and his brother assassination, Execution of Abdul Khaleq, and the elimination of the famed Charkhi family is Spellbinding.

One has to marvel at the thoroughness with which Ghobar discusses not only the brutal Monarchy System, the British involvement, the campaign against the Monarchy and the British from within and abroad but the entire political and economic situation in Afghanistan. Ghobar's vivid descriptions of the brutal regime of Nadir and his brothers', the British interference and the Indian connection offered insights that I have read nowhere else.

This is the one book you need to read if you want to know what it was like to be an Afghan and live under the Monarchy system in Afghanistan. The description scenes are gripping and often heartbreaking. Once you have read this book, you'll understand why Afghanistan is in such a state of chaos today!

Afghanistan in the Course of History is a fascinating portrait of the Afghan History. I have read no other account of the Afghan history equal to this. Ghobar's groundbreaking revelation is a masterpiece. This is literature.

from -Journal of North African Studies
"[A] significant, welcome step forward, not only in the study of African slavery but also more broadly in the history of the African Diaspora. The book is a series of translated primary source documents . . . organised topically and includ[ing] over 80 representative texts addressing the process of enslavement, markets, everyday life, social roles, identity, education, gender issues, status and social mobility, and emancipation. . . . A short historical contextualisation accompanies each major topic, introducing related textual selections.
"Introductory articles by Hunwick and Troutt Powell are among the best available on slavery in Islam and do a good job of orienting readers new to the subject. . . . [This is] the first collection of its kind in any language, and brings together texts from diverse origins. In this, the editors' selective approach matches well with the overarching purposes of the book. . . . Those interested in the origins of slavery in the Sahara and Maghrib will not only find useful primary materials to draw on, but also a broader framework for understanding the nature of the institution and some of its comparative dynamics over time. . . . [The authors] have offered an effective way of enticing the next generation of researchers." -Journal of North African Studies

For all true searchers and researches of the truth about Moslems and Islam and its hidden but still contemporary agenda of harassing, massacring and erasing other's cultures, the "inferior" culture of the infidels, this masterpiece is a must- simply imperative!

Its authors are heroes, no doubt about.

The frequently over looked subject of Islamic slavery is fianlly brought to light in this important new work on the subject. The focus here is on the Africans sent to North Africa via the slave routes stretching acorss the Sahara and those beggining in Zanzibar. Between the 7th century and the present it is estimated that 11 million Africans were taken as Slaves to the muslim world. This book explains how they were captured, transported and most important their new lives in the Muslim world. Usual accounts paint a picture of a paradise where a slave lived as an equal and assimilated into the Muslim soceity. The reality was quite different then the western myth. This book tells of African women chosen only for their sexual attributes then used as sex slaves, any resulting children would be sold or 'pimped' off by the owner rather then living freely as Qu'ranic law sopposedly guaranteed. Here we have a wonderful new account of the Africans deported to North Africa, a story frequently overlooked in western history, which is all to often caught up in self flagulation of describing the Atlantic slave trade.

Seth J. Frantzman

A book that begs us to call into serious question the nature of the society in which we, live. Using examples from postwar Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, it presents the broader issue, of "how our system really works": Government, media, and such.

Nowhere does the book praise "Stalinism." The issue is simply that of a colonial power smashing a national movement. In the 19th Century the prevailing ideollogy might have been Christiandom vs. Islam; by the 1960's it was the "Free World" vs. "Godless Communism." The essential power relatons of empire remain the same. To criticise the larger power and its bullying tactics is not to whitewash the other side; but the normal human reaction among the unbrainwashed is to take the side of the little guy fighting for his life over the big fat aggressor.

Ensconced in the ivory tower of American academia, neither Noam Chomsky nor Edward Herman would have survived day one of Cambodia's infamous "Year Zero" - an "agrarian reform" that led to the deaths of roughly two million people - one quarter of the population of Cambodia.

Luckily for Chomsky, the governor of Massachusetts (Chomsky is a linguistics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA) did not summarily round up, torture, convict and execute the intelligensia and bourgeois classes in Massachusetts. Sadly for Cambodia (or Kampuchea, if you prefer) Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge government did just this in Cambodia. Under the rule of the Khmer Rouge, the "crime" of being an elementary school teacher, to say nothing of being a tenured university professor!, was excuse enough for the revolutionary heroes Chomsky sings the praises of in "After The Cataclysm", to kill you and your entire family.

Chomsky's book fails in every conceivable way when analyzing the bloody regime of Pol Pot, attempting to write off refugee reports of the unimaginably large scale atrocities as the spin of an imperialist media seeking to defame the agrarian revolution. Chomsky could not have been more wrong, nor proved more valuable a western mouthpiece for one of the most brutal dictators in living memory.

The fiery anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism polemics and philippics that were Chomsky's milieu during the Vietnam war pigeonholed his analysis of the Pol Pot regime, and it shows in this book. After his bitter condemnations of anything even vaguely pro-American in Asian politics, Chomsky had ideologially painted himself into a corner. Rather than renounce one ounce of his invective, he instead wrote this book, which regardless of intent, reads as an apologist eulogy to the Khmer Rouge.

I give this book five stars because it's a five star work on the excesses of the old guard left in American academic circles, and a lingering stench on Chomsky's reputation. Had Chomsky had the integrity and courage to admit that the emperor Pol Pot had no clothes on, this book never would have been written....The disingenuousness presented in "After The Cataclysm" is nearly too astounding, as if written as a savage and bitter satire of professional academics-cum-polemicists. It's not, and academia is left tarnished for it.

The pictures in this book are outstanding.I was born in Egypt from Italian parents,during the golden days when so many nationalities prospered.For a very long period Alexandria was no longer an interesting place to visit or to discover.I think that the golden age has come back.The archeological discoveries,and the flow of foreigners coming into the city is making Alexander's dream come true once again.
Alexandria is practically built on top of the old city,so I would not be surprised if there were to be extraordinary discoveries in the future.Among them Alexander's mausoleum.

In 1967 and for many years afterwards Alexandria was dead in
every sense of the word.Many foreigners lost their properties and belongings and just ran away.
Many of these gorgeous properties are still there, gorgeous homes as you can see them in the pictures in this book.
El Attarin is the place to find so many antiques,which in New York would be sold for thousands of dollars.

You can also learn and read about the different influences of cultures that created Alexandria.I strongly feel that this is the best book on Alexandria I have seen so far.

It shows the Old and New Alexandria,its old history and today as it is developping.

Very well done and very well written.

Michael Haag's book of photographs and text on Alexandria, Egypt, is an atmospheric journey through a city that he has sensitively brought to life and made magical. Through his eyes you taste something of the old cosmopolitan city as it was in the the 1920s, 30s and 40s -- the city described in Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet. If you have ever wondered about that evocative city, this book will present it to you tangibly in photographs. It is a wonderful book for the armchair traveller, and also for the visitor to Alexandria today. I cannot praise it highly enough.

I love the vivid pictures in this book! It's short on text but you could easily spend many happy hours poring over Alexandria's grand ports, hotels and public squares.

Like all other Kanafani works, this book was a tremendous pleasure to read and at the same time intensely thought-provoking. "All that's left to you" contains, in addition to the title novella, a selection of Kanafani's short stories. All the stories in this anthology share the feature for which Kanafani has no contestant: the seamless changes of voice within a story, often from paragraph to paragraph, sometimes from sentence to sentence. Thus we explore the trials and tribulations of the five main characters in "All that's left to you", not as outsiders or even as one of the characters, but as each one of the characters in turn. The reader is made to travel invisibly from the mind of one of the characters to that of another, miles away, to learn what they are both thinking at the same instant. This is as close to a drama or a movie as one can get in a short story, or perhaps even better. It is also interesting to see how certain threads unify the narrative. Time, for instance, whom Kanafani even declared at the start to be actually a character, is one such thread. The layers of symbolism in the story destine it to be very deep reading for decades to come. Yet the novella is so fascinating, it is very difficult to put the book down. The short stories in the anthology are equally fascinating, each in its own right. They don't lack from the changes in voice that is present in "All that's left to you", and they also have their share of critical plot twists right at the end of the story. Thus be prepared to completely change your perspective after reading the last sentence of each story.

Recommend: "Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories" and "Palestine's Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories", both by Kanafani

Like all other Kanafani works, this book was a tremendous pleasure to read and at the same time intensely thought-provoking. "All that's left to you" contains, in addition to the title novella, a selection of Kanafani's short stories. All the stories in this anthology share the feature for which Kanafani has no contestant: the seamless changes of voice within a story, often from paragraph to paragraph, sometimes from sentence to sentence. Thus we explore the trials and tribulations of the five main characters in "All that's left to you", not as outsiders or even as one of the characters, but as each one of the characters in turn. The reader is made to travel invisibly from the mind of one of the characters to that of another, miles away, to learn what they are both thinking at the same instant. This is as close to a drama or a movie as one can get in a short story, or perhaps even better. It is also interesting to see how certain threads unify the narrative. Time, for instance, whom Kanafani even declared at the start to be actually a character, is one such thread. The layers of symbolism in the story destine it to be very deep reading for decades to come. Yet the novella is so fascinating, it is very difficult to put the book down. The short stories in the anthology are equally fascinating, each in its own right. They don't lack from the changes in voice that is present in "All that's left to you", and they also have their share of critical plot twists right at the end of the story. Thus be prepared to completely change your perspective after reading the last sentence of each story.

All That's Left to You is a sad reminder of all that was lost by the Palestinian people in 1948. Families were separated, yet a nation was born from their sorrow. This novella is the second in what became a trilogy of the evolution of Palestinian consciousness. It is here that their anger erupts. It is here that a nation begins to hear the plea of the author himself - salvation comes through actions, not through memories. A most interesting and important aspect of the novella is Kanafani's accurate portrayal of a woman's heart. This story must be recognized as a contribution to feminist literature. The main female character struggles within the parameters of a deeply paternalistic society under military occupation to come to terms with her sexuality and her shattered dreams. It is through her that the nation will be reborn. Kanafani utilizes excellent literary devices and the translation by Kirkpatrick is superb. The reader is advised to read Men in the Sun first if possible.