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Reading Challenge A book about or taking place in the Middle East |
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The kite runner
by Khaled Hosseini
Afghanistan, 1975: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.
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A mask the color of the sky
by Bassem Khandaqji
Nur, a young Palestinian refugee from a camp near Ramallah, is often mistaken for an Ashkenazi Jew. Fluent in Hebrew and with a degree in archaeology, he dreams of freedom beyond the fences of the camp--and of writing a novel about Mary Magdalene based on the Gnostic Gospels. When he discovers an Israeli ID card in the pocket of a secondhand coat, he assumes a false identity and is hired for an archaeological dig near Megiddo. Passing as an Israeli, he moves through a world previously off-limits, gaining insight into the lives and beliefs of those he's been taught to see as enemies. But as Nur's borrowed identity deepens, so does the rift within: between Nur, the Palestinian, and Ur, the Israeli. By exploring this internal conflict, unfolding alongside friendships and love affairs, Bassem Khandaqji offers a meditation on the personal toll of occupation and the elusive desire to belong somewhere--fully, honestly, and without fear.
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And the mountains echoed
by Khaled Hosseini
Afghanistan, 1952. Abdullah and his sister Pari live with their father and step-mother. Their father, Saboor, is constantly in search of work and they struggle together through poverty and brutal winters. To Adbullah, Pari, as beautiful and sweet-natured as the fairy for which she was named, is everything.
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A thousand splendid suns
by Khaled Hosseini
Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.
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The stationery shop
by Marjan Kamali
A novel set in 1953 Tehran against the backdrop of the Iranian Coup about a young couple in love who are separated on the eve of their marriage, and who are reunited sixty years later, after having moved on to live independent lives in America, to discover the truth about what happened on that fateful day in the town square.
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The lion women of Tehran
by Marjan Kamali
In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother's endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation. Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa's warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming lion women. But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls' high school in Iran, Ellie's memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie's privileged world alters the course of both of their lives. Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.
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Song of a captive bird
by Jasmin Darznik
All through her childhood in Tehran, Forugh Farrokhzad is told that Iranian daughters should be quiet and modest. She is taught only to obey, but she finds ways to rebel -- including writing poems to impress her strict, disapproving father. The novel was inspired by Forugh Farrokhzad's verse, letters, films, and interviews.
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When the fireflies dance
by Aisha Hassan
On the outskirts of Lahore, Pakistan, a large yellow moon hung low in the sky when the men came with dogs and guns and cricket bats. In front of his family's small hut on the edge of a looming brick kiln, Lalloo's brother was murdered. Unable to escape the memory of that horrible night, Lalloo's parents and sisters remain trapped, the kiln chimney churning black smoke into the sky as the family slave, brick by brick, to pay off their debts. To rescue them, Lalloo must free himself from his past and carve out his own destiny.
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Eighteen days in October : the Yom Kippur War and how it created the modern Middle East
by Uri Kaufman
October 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, a conflict that shaped the modern Middle East. The war was a trauma for Israel, a dangerous superpower showdown, and, following the oil embargo, a pivotal reordering of the global economic order. The Jewish State came shockingly close to defeat. A panicky cabinet meeting debated the use of nuclear weapons. After the war, Prime Minister Golda Meir resigned in disgrace, and a 9/11-style commission investigated the 'debacle.' But, argues Uri Kaufman, from the perspective of a half century, the war can be seen as a pivotal victory for Israel.
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The lemon tree : an Arab, a Jew, and the heart of the Middle East by Sandy TolanThe tale of a simple act of faith between two young people, one Israeli and one Palestinian, that symbolizes the hope for peace in the Middle East - with an updated afterword by the author. In 1967, Bashir Khairi, a twenty-five-year-old Palestinian, journeyed to Israel with the goal of seeing the beloved stone house with the lemon tree behind it that he and his family had fled nineteen years earlier. To his surprise, when he found the house he was greeted by Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, a nineteen-year-old Israeli college student, whose family left Europe for Israel following the Holocaust. On the stoop of their shared home, Dalia and Bashir began a rare friendship, forged in the aftermath of war and tested over the next half century in ways that neither could imagine on that summer day in 1967. Sandy Tolan brings the Israeli-Palestinian conflict down to its most human level, demonstrating that even amid the bleakest political realities there exist stories of hope and transformation.
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The space between our footsteps : poems and paintings from the Middle East
by Naomi Shihab Nye
In an unparalleled collection, honored anthologist Naomi Shihab Nye brings together the work of over 120 poets and artists from nineteen countries in the Middle East. In turn compelling, lyrical, tragic, and humorous, this rich anthology opens the door to the Middle East and beckons readers to explore our common ground. The poets and artists collected in this volume range from luminaries such as Adonis, Yehuda Amichai, Chaibia Tallal, Nazim Hikmet, and Naguib Mahfouz to those whose work has never been published before. With an ear to a rich history and a vision of hope for the future, this elegant book invites readers to experience a grand mosaic of cultures and traditions. It also features forty paintings reproduced in full color, an introduction, notes on the contributors, indexes, and a map.
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The eyes of Gaza : a diary of resilience
by Plestia Alaqad
In early October 2023, Palestinian Plestia Alaqad was a recent university graduate dreaming of a career as a journalist. But by the end of November, her homeland was unrecognizable--and she was broadcasting videos of violence and destruction to millions online, known across the world as The Eyes of Gaza. A series of diary extracts from the weeks following October 7, The Eyes of Gaza is a gutting, on-the-ground record of the turmoil and destruction endured by the men, women, and children of Palestine. As Alaqad flees from neighborhood to neighborhood, from hospital to hospital, she documents all she sees--the destruction of beloved homes, the waves of bombs, and most of all, the boundless bravery and generosity of her people--all the while trying to memorize the faces of those around her so somebody will have known them before the end, wondering if, one day, her own journal will be discovered amidst the rubble.
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Black Saturday : an unfiltered account of the October 7th attack on Israel and the war in Gaza
by Trey Yingst
On October 7, 2023, Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst was on the ground along the Gaza border and witnessed firsthand the devastation, shock, and deep sorrow that whirled through Israel. A seasoned journalist who has reported from some of the most dangerous hotspots around the world, ... Yingst was just one among many people plunged into the terrifying chaos of that horrific event. In this ... chronicle, he pieces together the story of that tragic day and reveals how he risked his life searching for answers to essential questions in real time--who within Israel had been attacked; what happened to them; who, potentially, was next--while exploring the impact on both Israelis and Palestinians as a full-scale war ramps up and peace grows more elusive.
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We are not numbers : the voices of Gaza's youth
by Ahmed Alnaouq and Pam Bailey.
These are the stories of young people from Gaza, born under Israeli occupation and blockade. They are people who have endured unspeakable struggles and losses, who keep fighting to be recognized not as numbers, but as human beings with hopes, dreams, and lives worth living.
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10/7 : 100 human stories
by Lee Yaron
An account of the 10/7 attacks through the stories of its victims and the communities they called home. A work of investigative journalism and political critique by Lee Yaron, 10/7 chronicles the massacre that ignited a war through the stories of more than 100 civilians. These stories are the products of extensive interviews with survivors, the bereaved, and first responders in Israel and beyond.
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From Beirut to Jerusalem
by Thomas L. Friedman
IOne of the most thought-provoking books ever written about the Middle East, From Beirut to Jerusalem remains vital to our understanding of this complex and volatile region of the world. Three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman drew upon his ten years of experience reporting from Lebanon and Israel to write this now-classic work of journalism. In a new preface, he updates his journey with a fresh analysis of the region today, setting the Gazan war that began with Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, as well as the Saudi-Iranian rivalry and epochal changes in the Gulf, in the context of a conflict between networks of inclusion and resistance that has defined the area in recent decades. Rich with anecdote, history, analysis, and autobiography, From Beirut to Jerusalem will continue to shape how we see the Middle East for many years to come.
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The complete Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi
Here, in one volume: Marjane Satrapi's best-selling, internationally acclaimed graphic memoir of growing up as a girl in Iran during the revolution. Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming--both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.
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Silenced whispers
by Afarin O. Bellisario
Silenced Whispers tells the story of an Iranian woman's battle for freedom-hers and her country's-and love amid profound social change and imperial power grabs. Vividly portraying life in Iran at the dawn of the twentieth century, the book is inspired by the author's upbringing in an Azeri family in Tehran and her Russian great-grandfather.
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The fall of the Ottomans : the Great War in the Middle East
by Eugene Rogan
By 1914 the powers of Europe were sliding inexorably toward war, and they pulled the Middle East along with them into one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region's crucial role in the conflict. Unlike the static killing fields of the Western Front, the war in the Middle East was fast-moving and unpredictable, with the Turks inflicting decisive defeats on the Entente in Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Gaza before the tide of battle turned in the Allies' favor. The postwar settlement led to the partition of Ottoman lands, laying the groundwork for the ongoing conflicts that continue to plague the modern Arab world.
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The dovekeepers
by Alice Hoffman
In 70 C.E., nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman's novel is a spellbinding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path. Yael's mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death. Revka, a village baker's wife, watched the horrifically brutal murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers; she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by what they have witnessed. Aziza is a warrior's daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and an expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier. Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power. The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets--about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love.
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The true true story of Raja the Gullible (and his mother)
by Rabih Alameddine
In a tiny Beirut apartment, sixty-three-year-old Raja and his mother live side by side. A beloved high school philosophy teacher and the neighborhood homosexual, Raja relishes books, meditative walks, order, and solitude. Zalfa, his octogenarian mother, views her son's desire for privacy as a personal affront. She demands to know every detail of Raja's work life and love life, boundaries be damned. When Raja receives an invite to an all-expenses-paid writing residency in America, the timing couldn't be better. It arrives on the heels of a series of personal and national disasters that have left Raja longing for peace and quiet away from his mother and the heartache of Lebanon. But what at first seems a stroke of good fortune soon leads Raja to recount and relive the very disasters and past betrayals he wishes to forget.
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House of stone : a memoir of home, family, and a lost Middle East
by Anthony Shadid
In rebuilding his family home in southern Lebanon, Shadid commits an extraordinarily generous act of restoration for his wounded land, and for us all. -- Annia Ciezadlo, author of Day of Honey In spring 2011, Anthony Shadid was one of four New York Times reporters captured in Libya, cuffed and beaten, as that country was seized by revolution. When he was freed, he went home. Not to Boston or Beirut--where he lives-- or to Oklahoma City, where his Lebanese-American family had settled and where he was raised. Instead, he returned to his great-grandfather's estate, a house that, over three years earlier, Shadid had begun to rebuild. House of Stone is the story of a battle-scarred home and a war correspondent's jostled spirit, and of how reconstructing the one came to fortify the other. In this poignant and resonant memoir, the author of the award-winning Night Draws Near creates a mosaic of past and present, tracing the house's renewal alongside his family's flight from Lebanon and resettlement in America.
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