Beirut Blues

Literature & Fiction

Al-Shaykh, Hanan

Contemporary

Vintage

The Locust and the Bird: My Mother's Story

“One of the most daring female writers of the Middle East” (San Francisco Chronicle) gives us an extraordinary work of nonfiction: an account of her mother’s remarkable life, at the core of which is a tale of undying love. In a masterly act of literary transformation, Hanan al-Shaykh re-creates the dramatic life of her mother, Kamila, in Kamila’s own voice. We enter 1930s Beirut through the eyes of the unschooled but irrepressibly spirited nine-year-old child who arrives there from a small village in southern Lebanon. We see her drawn to the excitements of the city, to the thrill of the cinema, and, most powerfully, to Mohammed, the young man who will be the love of her life. Despite a forced marriage at the age of thirteen to a much older man, despite the two daughters she bears him (one of them the author), despite the scandal and embarrassment she brings to her family, Kamila continues to see Mohammed. Finally, after nearly a decade, her husband gives her a divorce, but she must leave her children behind The Locust and the Bird is both a tribute to a strong-willed and independent woman and a heartfelt critique of a mother whose decision were unorthodox and often controversial. As the narrative unfolds through the years (Kamila died in 2001) we follow this passionate, strong, demanding, and captivating woman as she survives the tragedies and celebrates the triumphs of a life lived to the very fullest.

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Pantheon

In a masterly act of literary transformation, celebrated novelist Hanan al-Shaykh re-creates the dramatic life and times of her mother, Kamila. Married at a young age against her will, Kamila soon fell head-over-heels in love with another man—and was thus forced to choose between her children and her lover. As the narrative unfolds through the years—from the bazaars, cinemas and apartments of 1930s Beirut to its war-torn streets decades later—we follow this passionate woman as she survives the tragedies and celebrates the triumphs of a life lived to the very fullest.

Anchor

Passed down over centuries from India, Persia, and across the Arab world, the mesmerizing stories of One Thousand and One Nights are related by the beautiful, young Shahrazad as she attempts to delay her execution. Retold in modern English by the acclaimed Lebanese author Hanan al-Shaykh, here are stories of the real and the supernatural, love and marriage, power and punishment, wealth and poverty, and the endless trials and uncertainties of fate. Bringing together nineteen classic tales, in these pages al-Shaykh weaves an utterly intoxicating collection, rich with humor, violence, and romance.

One Thousand and One Nights: A Retelling

United States

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

From one of the most highly regarded contemporary Arab writers, a wonderfully comic and touching novel about four people seeking love and liberty in London’s burgeoning Arab community On a flight from Dubai to London a sudden turbulence throws together four people from different corners of the Arab world: beautiful, lost Lamis, recently divorced from her wealthy Iraqi husband; Nicholas, a Sotheby’s expert on Islamic daggers; Amira, a bossy Moroccan prostitute; and Samir, who is worried about the monkey he has hidden in a basket under his seat. As they settle into London, their lives continue to intertwine: Samir moves in with Amira but spends his time dreaming of blond boys; Amira masquerades as an Arab princess to entice clients at the Dorchester Hotel; and Nicholas and Lamis begin a passionate affair. Their stories are funny, tender, and sexy; rich with observations about exile and return, love and language, art and identity. Through them Hanan al-Shaykh captures a unique and vital London, a place where Arab and Western cultures both collide head-on and blend together in wonderfully engaging ways.

Only in London: A Novel

Zahra, a young Lebanese woman haunted by memories of abuse by her parents, enters into a loveless marriage in West Africa and then returns to a war-torn Beirut

Story of Zahra, The

DOUBLEDAY

Zahra’s mother uses her as a cover for her meetings with a lover; Zahra’s strict father mistreats her for being complicit in her mother’s affair. Fleeing from Beirut in search of solace, Zahra stays with her uncle in West Africa—and then uses marriage as another kind of escape. Back in Beirut, love finally comes to her, but with terrible consequences. Banned in several Middle Eastern countries since its original publication, The Story of Zahra is an intoxicating, provocative story of a young woman’s coming of age in a city torn apart by war.

The Story of Zahra: A Novel

With the acclaim won by her first two novels, Hanan al-Shaykh established herself as the Arab world's foremost woman writer. Beirut Blues, published to similar acclaim, further confirms her place in Arabic literature, and brings her writing to a new, groundbreaking level. The daring fragmented structure of this epistolary novel mirrors the chaos surrounding the heroine, Asmahan, as she futilely writes letters to her loved ones, to her friends, to Beirut, and to the war itself--letters of lament that are never to be answered except with their own resounding echoes. In Beirut Blues, Hanan al-Shaykh evokes a Beirut that has been seen by few, and that will never be seen again.

Since the U.S. publication of Women of Sand and Myrrh--which has now sold more than 35,000 copies and was selected as one of the Fifty Best Books of 1992 by Publishers Weekly--Hanan al-Shaykh has attracted an ever larger following for her dazzling tales of contemporary Arab women. In these seventeen short stories--eleven of which are appearing in English for the first time--al-Shaykh expands her horizons beyond the boundaries of Lebanon, taking us throughout the Middle East, to Africa, and finally to London. Stylistically diverse, her stories are often about the shifting and ambiguous power relationships between different cultures--as well as between men and women. Often compared to both Margaret Atwood and Margaret Drabble, Hanan al-Shaykh is "a gifted and courageous writer" (Middle Eastern International).

I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops

Four strangers meet on a turbulent flight from Dubai to London: Amira, a canny Moroccan prostitute; Lamis, a 30-year old Iraqi divorcee; Nicholas, an English expert on Islamic art; and Samir, a Lebanese man who is delivering a monkey on a mission he doesn’t fully understand. Once safely on British soil, Lamis and Nicholas fall in love, Samir chases after blond British youths, and Amira reinvents herself as a princess, the better to lure clients at the best London hotels. Through the city and across cultural borders, Only in London wittily portrays the smells, sounds, and sights of London’s lively Arab neighorhoods, as well as the freedoms the city both offers and withholds from its immigrants.

Only in London

Literary

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Al-Shaykh, Hanan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Al-Shaykh, Hanan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Al-Shaykh, Hanan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Beirut Blues

The Locust and the Bird: My Mother's Story

The Locust and the Bird: My Mother's Story

One Thousand and One Nights: A Retelling

Only in London: A Novel

Story of Zahra, The

The Story of Zahra: A Novel

Beirut Blues

I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops

Only in London