Baghdad without a Map: And Other Misadventures in Arabia

by TonyHorowitz (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1991

  $5.81

  A very funny and frequently insightful look at the world's most combustible region. --The New York Times Book Review
  
  NATIONAL BESTSELLER

  With razor-sharp wit and insight, intrepid journalist Tony Horwitz gets beyond solemn newspaper headlines and romantic myths of Arabia to offer startling close-ups of a volatile region few Westerners understand. His quest for hot stories takes him from the tribal wilds of Yemen to the shell-pocked shores of Lebanon; from the malarial sands of the Sudan to the eerie souks of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, a land so secretive that even street maps and weather reports are banned.

  As an oasis in the Empty Quarter, a veiled woman offers tea and a mysterious declaration of love. In Cairo, politeness police patrol seedy nightclubs to ensure that belly dancers don't show any belly. And at the Ayatollah's funeral in Tehran a mourner chants, Death to America, then confesses to the author his secret dream--to visit Disneyland.

  Careening through thirteen Muslim countries and Israel, Horwitz travels light, packing a keen eye, a wicked sense of humor, and chutzpah in almost suicidal measure. This wild and comic tale of Middle East misadventure reveals a fascinating world in which the ancient and the modern collide.

  As a document of the cultural impasse that brought on the war, this is unsurpassed. --Village Voice

  High-spirited and entertaining. --The New Yorker

  A timely and incisive insider's description of the mysterious Arab World . . . Tony Horwitz is an ideal guide for American Reader. --Chicago Tribune

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $4.33

  Journalist Tony Horowitz went to Arabia without a job, and spent two years visiting 13 Muslim countries and Israel, writing copy for whoever could be persuaded to take it. Not long after he arrived in Yemen he was advised never to drink the water, eat the food or chew the hallucinatory leaf Qat. Unfortunately Tony had to confess he had already done all three. This book contains Horowitz's often amusing observations and insights as a result of his travels.