The Hakawati

'Stunning' New York Times Book Review

'Here it comes the book of the year on its own magic carpet. No book this bewitching has ever felt so important; no book this important has ever been so lovingly enchanted. The Hakawati is both a snapshot of our current crisis and a story for the ages. What else can we ask the djinn of literature for?' Andrew Sean Greer author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Less

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.

'Sharp seductive storytelling' O The Oprah Magazine