This stunning novel brings to life the enthralling world of Cyrus the Great, the leader of Ancient Persia – the world’s first great empire – and the life and times of Cyrus himself, a magnificent leader whose passion won the hearts of his subjects and of two extraordinary women – the wildly beautiful warrior Roshan and the exquisite Cassadane.
‘In England, where Madame Tussaud virtually reinvented the queue, it is a national avocation and an integral part of the English gene. English people queue at the drop of a hat. They will form queues to get into queues. It is not what you are queuing for . . . it is how you do it.’ No doubt a description of ourselves that we are all familiar with, yet we must leave it to Maruf Khawaja to explain the slight spin put on the ‘oh so British’ pursuit of queueing by the inhabitants of the UAE!
It is Chile, 1985, and the dictator has succeeded in stamping his absolute control on the military, the universities, the church . . . oh, and also on cemeteries, the city dump and clowns . . . What subversives can be left on the unstoppable march forward of the Fatherland? Just the whores – that strange, indecipherable and mysterious group of women who offer themselves for money.
In the ancient Egyptian religion, Seth is the evil god who out of jealousy slays his brother Osiris, the good god of agriculture, to seize the throne. Seth is, however, also the god of the desert and therefore a benevolent champion of desert dwellers like the traditionally nomadic Kel Tamasheq, better known as the Tuareg.
Taken from the quiet sanctuary of a convent school, where she works as a maid, Aisha is thrown back into the chaotic world of her parents’ home in the Tal Ezza’tar refugee camp when the Lebanese civil war begins. From then on she is caught up in a series of tragedies, including the continuous bombardment of the camp by the Phalangists and the subsequent invasion and massacres within the settlement.
An Anthology of Pakistani Women Writers
Yasmin Hameed
Ghulam Mohammad, successful hotelier and shop owner, wants to sell up and buy a church – a derelict church in a run-down corner of Birmingham – and convert it into a mosque. But his son has other plans. With an eye on his temporal rather than spiritual riches, he will stop at nothing to protect his inheritance . . .
In her desire to embrace traditional Indian culture wholeheartedly Sally, an American, has decided to join her Indian husband on his funeral pyre – regardless of the fact that such an act is, in fact, illegal in India. In committing sati she enlists the help of Mrs Sen, a journalist from Delhi, to record the momentous event for posterity.
This short but cleverly crafted novel recounts the tale of Muhra, a young woman whose name means filly, born of the descendants of the Bedouin tribes who settled in Egypt’s Delta Province of El Sharqiyya during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Modern Arabic Short Stories from Syria
Zakaria Tamer
The first of Zakaria Tamer’s collections of stories to be published in English as a complete unit, Breaking Knees is a daring work of art that deals with taboo subjects like religion and sexuality in a frank manner and expresses an urgently felt need for change.
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