Stories from the Center of the World New Middle East Fiction

<p><b><i>One of </i>The Millions<i> Most Anticipated Books & a Powell''s Bookstore Staff Favorite of the Year!<br></i></b></p><p><b>Short stories from 25 emerging and established writers of Middle Eastern and North African origins, a unique collection of voices and viewpoints that illuminate life in the global Arab/Muslim world.</b></p><p>"Provocative and subtle, nuanced and surprising, these stories demonstrate how this complicated and rich region might best be approached?through the power of literature."?<strong>Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of<em> The Committed</em></strong></p><p><i>Stories from the Center of the World</i> gathers new writing from the greater Middle East (or SWANA), a vast region that stretches from Southwest Asia, through the Middle East and Turkey, and across Northern Africa. The 25 authors included here come from a wide range of cultures and countries, including Palestine, Syria, Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, and Morocco, to name some.</p><p>In ?Asha and Haaji,? <b>Hanif Kureishi</b> takes up the cause of outsiders who become uprooted when war or disaster strikes and they flee for safe haven. In <b>Nektaria Anastasiadou</b>?s ?The Location of the Soul According to Benyamin Alhadeff,? two students in Istanbul from different classes ? and religions that have often been at odds with one another ? believe they can overcome all obstacles. <b>MK Harb</b>?s story, ?Counter Strike,? is about queer love among Beiruti adolescents; and <b>Salar Abdoh</b>?s ?The Long Walk of the Martyrs? invites us into the world of former militants, fighters who fought ISIS or Daesh in Iraq and Syria, who are having a hard time readjusting to civilian life. In ?Eleazar,? <b>Karim Kattan</b> tells an unexpected Palestinian story in which the usual antagonists ? Israeli occupation forces ? are mostly absent, while another malevolent force seems to overtake an unsuspecting family. <b>Omar El Akkad</b>?s ?The Icarist? is a coming-of-age story about the underworld in which illegal immigrants are forced to live, and what happens when one dares to break away. <br></p><p><b>Contributors include:</b> <b>Salar Abdoh, Leila Aboulela, Farah Ahamed, Omar El Akkad, Sarah AlKahly-Mills, Nektaria Anastasiadou, Amany Kamal Eldin, Jordan Elgrably, Omar Foda, May Haddad, </b><b>Danial Haghighi, </b><b>Malu Halasa, MK Harb, Alireza Iranmehr, </b><b> Karim Kattan, </b><b>Hanif Kureishi, Ahmed Salah Al-Mahdi, Diary Marif, Tariq Mehmood, Sahar Mustafah, Mohammed Al-Naas, Ahmed Naji, Mai Al-Nakib, Abdellah Taia, and Natasha Tynes</b><br></p>