The Hakawati

by RabihAlameddine (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2008

  $6.32

  Irreverent, exhilarating, heartbreaking, and enchanting us from the very first line - 'Listen. Let me take you on a journey beyond imagining. Let me tell you a story' - this extraordinary book is an Arabian Nights for our time. Osama al-Kharrat left Lebanon at sixteen to escape the civil war. He returns after some years, much changed, to find his father bedridden and his family, friends and enemies in attendance, reminiscing, gossiping, making peace, and above all telling stories. Hakawati means 'storyteller', and Osama's grandfather was one of the best.From Uncle Jihad to the family doctor 'Tin Can', each member of Osama's circle is joined in a vigil that crosses continents, spans centuries, celebrates love, recounts war, and creates an epic picture of the region: one that is at once mythic, mischievous, and painfully real. 'A glorious, gorgeous masterpiece of pure storytelling' - Amy Tan. ' The Hakawati is astonishing. There is a delightful cheekiness in telling so many tales all at the same time. It is pure genius' - Aleksandar Hemon. 'Here it comes, the book of the year, on its own magic carpet of endless stories. Both a snapshot of our current crisis, and a story for the ages' - Andrew Sean Greer.

• Used

  Paperback
  2009

  $4.25

  Listen. Let me take you on a journey beyond imagining. Let me tell you a story . . .

  The al-Kharrats are a lovable, irrepressible family going through a difficult time. Osama has returned to Beirut after a long absence to be with his ailing father and join the vigil around his bedside, and since storytelling runs in the family's veins - his grandfather was a legendary hakawati - this is no peaceful, reverential scene. It is one of gossip and imagination, of tales remembered and tales invented, of love affairs and civil war, of myths and feisty heroines and warriors and music and not a little magic.

  Crossing continents, spanning centuries, full of adventure, mischief and surprise, this glorious novel is a twenty-first-century Arabian Nights. Prepare to be enchanted.

  `A wonder of a book. A work - and a world - that expands our narrow vision, transforming it to one of multiplicity, enchanting it with hope' New York Times

  `Here it comes, the book of the year, on its own magic carpet of stories. No book this bewitching has ever felt so important' Andrew Sean Greer

  `A glorious, gorgeous masterpiece of pure storytelling' Amy Tan

  `Dazzling' Financial Times