The Other Middle East: An Anthology of Modern Levantine Literature

About this book

This unique literary collection offers a window on the contemporary Levant a region comprising most of Lebanon Syria Jordan Palestine Israel Cyprus parts of southern Turkey and northwestern Iraq and the Sinai Peninsula. Originally written in Arabic French Aramaic Lebanese Egyptian and Hebrew and reflecting an extraordinary diversity of cultures faiths traditions and languages the selections in this book also convey a wide range of ideas and perspectives to offer readers a nuanced understanding of the mosaic that is the contemporary Middle East. Franck Salameh who compiled this anthology over the course of more than two decades introduces and annotates each selection for the benefit of the uninitiated reader offering background on the various peoples and politics of the Levant. In these pages we discover a Middle East in which as one writer puts it an Armenian and a Turk can still hold hands in the midst of massacres.