The Hakawati

by RabihAlameddine (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2008

  $62.91

  The Hakawati - or, The Storyteller - is a sweeping, wildly imaginative feast of a novel, bursting with the myths of the Middle East. At its emotional core is the reunion of a long-standing Beiruti family, whose patriarch is dying and visited on his deathbed by his children and by memories of his ancestors. Rabih Alameddine tells their stories - of crusades and battles; chicanery, betrayal and sex; family rivalry, family disunity and family life - and spins them together with the historical stories of the region, but with a twist. Born in Beirut, living in San Francisco, and writing in English, Alameddine not only spans both Western and Middle-Eastern culture, but does so as one of the most mischevious and inventive writers at work. While the Fatima of legend gives birth to the son of the lord of the Underworld, it is to the accompaniment of a vocal set of imps disguised as parrots. The evil conqueror of the known world is called Arbusto - or 'Bush' in Portuguese. This kind of colour overlays the harsh violence of the real world, whether it be the suffering and disruption of civil war, the loss of a parent, or the difficulties of adolescence and sexual awakening. The Hakawati is a kaleidoscopic tour of the Middle East: of conflict, of religion, of family; and in Alameddine's hands even the most venerable and familiar of tales emerge with outrageous humour, unscripted sex, and a humanity that is uniquely his own.

• Used

  Paperback
  2009

  $3.35

  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