Search results for ""saqi books""

In segregated, conservative societies with a repressive attitude to women, writing on the theme of love and sexuality are of particular interest. Among the plethora of studies on modern Arabic literature, this book is a major treatment of what has generally been a taboo subject. The scope covers the entire history of modern Arabic literature from the late-19th century to the end of the 1980s, with examples drawn from countries as diverse as Egypt and Kuwait. Although the main accent is on the prose of Egypt and the countries of the Mashreq, North African literature is also included. Examples are drawn form poetry, the novel and the short story. Topics range from "Erotic awareness in the early Egyptian short story" to "Death and desire in Iraqi War literature", from "Fathers and husbands as tyrants and victims" to "The foreign woman and the European mistress in the Maghreb novel". "Love and the mechanism of power" is analyzed, as are "Sexual politics and narrative strategies". Love and sexuality are shown as key elements in the work of Tawfik al-Hakim, Fuad al-Tikirli, the Kuwaiti writer Layla al-Uthman annd Nizar Qabbani. Other chapters treat "The lover in popular 20th-century Arabic drama", "Love and beyond in Mahjar literature" and "The romantic imagination and the female ideal".

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Offers an account of a cross-cultural marriage.

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Against the backdrop of Nazism, in a multi-racial Turkey giving sanctuary to many of Europe's fleeing Jews, a group of teenage friends struggles to understand events while reeling from the sexual and emotional discoveries of adolescence. An alluring woman initiates Mustafa and his classmates in the carnal delights of rose petal jam; Musa discovers the hard facts of reaching manhood when he is expelled from the women's baths; Bilal, a fourteen-year-old Jewish boy, sets off for Greece to rescue his mother's sister; and a circus orphan known only as `Girl' falls head over heels for the new trapeze artist ... Young Turk is a wise, craftily-spun and spine-tinglingly erotic tale of love, courage and the forging of conscience.

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Christopher and Alexandra's passion for one another raises eyebrows and invites envy. This beautiful, blinkered couple do the unthinkable and run away from home, abandoning their two teenage children. This is a story of obsessive love and a testimony to the bonds that tie us to our past, regardless of distance or time travelled.

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The Exile’s Cookbook brings together 480 recipes, including roasts and stews, breads, condiments, preserves, sweetmeats, and even hand-washing soaps. It offers a fascinating insight into the cuisine of Muslim Spain and North Africa in the period – its regional characteristics and historical antecedents, but also its links to culinary traditions in other parts of the Muslim world. This elegant translation by Daniel L. Newman is based on all the manuscripts of the text that are known to have survived. It is accompanied by an introduction and extensive notes contextualising the recipes, ingredients, tableware and cooking practices.

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Sara is a philosophy professor at Kuwait University. Her relationship with Kuwait is complicated; it is a country she recognises less and less. Yet since her return from the States eleven years earlier, a certain inertia has kept her there. When she is accused of blasphemy, which carries with it the threat of execution, Sara realises she must reconcile her feelings and her place in the world once and for all. Awaiting trial, Sara retraces the past, intent on examining the lives of the women who made her. She conjures forth her grandmothers - beautiful and stubborn Yasmine, who marries the son of the Pasha of Basra and lives to regret it, and Lulwa, born poor in Kuwait and later swept off to India by her wealthy merchant husband. An Unlasting Home brings to life the triumphs and failures of three generations of Arab women. At once intimate and sweeping, personal and political, it is an unforgettable family portrait and a spellbinding epic tale.

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Malika Moustadraf is a cult feminist icon in contemporary Moroccan literature, celebrated for her uncompromising depiction of life on the margins. Something Strange, Like Hunger presents Moustadraf's collected short fiction: haunting, visceral stories by a master of the genre. Here, we tune into Casablanca's unheard: a sex worker struggling to keep warm on the streets; a housewife flirting with strangers online; a kidney patient, priced-out of treatment, facing the harsh reality of his condition; and a mother scheming to ensure her daughter passes a virginity test. Something Strange, Like Hunger is a sharp provocation to patriarchal power, and a celebration of the life and genius of one of Morocco's preeminent writers.

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Myths arose in Europe about far-flung exotic lands - particularly Serbia and Montenegro - based on the nineteenth-century heroic epic poetry of the South Slavs. These were lands populated by 'noble savages' for whom freedom and martial honour were of supreme importance, and they filtered down into the formation of the first and second Yugoslav states (1918-41 and 1945-89), which utilized themes from patriarchal popular culture and the anti-Ottoman epics for their own political ends. Ivo aniae reveals how, during the last decade-and-a-half of the twentieth century, military and political leaders in Belgrade followed this pattern of selecting and manipulating cultural motifs in order to justify their repression of Kosovans, and their aggression in Croatia and Bosnia. But he reveals too how the Croatian and Bosnian military and political elites mobilized their own social memories during the post-Yugoslav wars. Drawing on a wealth of sources - including print media, TV broadcasts, political speeches, and particularly new epic poems, unveiled at political rallies or before military or paramilitary audiences then widely distributed on audio cassette - aniae's book is far-reaching, revealing how war profiteers, paramilitary leaders, plunderers and charlatans took their places harmoniously within the universal theme of Robin Hood, growing into models of local identity and even into national icons and political exemplars.

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Passionate and renowned chefs Andree Malouf and Karim Haidar continue the Lebanese tradition of exquisite culinary invention in this collection of soups, salads, meats and deserts. Over a hundred inventive recipes are included in this beautifully illustrated book: lentil soup with tomatoes, calamari and coriander salad, five-spice lamb and rice, fried halloumi cheese with quince jam, pumpkin kibbeh, pears in arak, and rose ice cream, to name but a few. This is authentic and exciting Mediterranean food, using fresh and healthy ingredients, perfect for everyday eating and entertaining alike. It is presented with a preface by Amim Maalouf.

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The Arab world's strategic location and its considerable material and human potential should allow it to play a major role in world affairs. However, plagued by authoritarian regimes, ethnic and social cleavages, economic underdevelopment and military weakness, these states depend on the outside for security. In this balanced and discerning study, Hassan Hamdan al-Alkim examines the dynamics of Arab foreign-policy-making in the twenty-first century. He considers the significance of a changing world order, an unstable Arab regional order, and the Arab-Israeli conflict for Arab foreign policy-making processes. The book's four case studies - the Middle East Peace process, the Water crisis, the Food crisis, and Saudi Arabia's foreign policy - enable a wide-ranging analysis for understanding contemporary Arab politics and its role in world affairs.

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This is the story of Zena, a young woman who has fallen under the spell of a city that threatens to engulf her in war, grief and love affairs. In the streets armed militias carve out their territories, while ragged construction workers rebuild the city. Refugees sleep five to a bed as bleach-blondes wend their way to the next drug-fuelled supernightclub. At any moment, the bombs will start falling. Meanwhile, Zena and her best friend Maya must try to make sense of their lives amidst the craziness, and negotiate the city's many obsessions including cosmetic surgery, husband hunting and Kalashnikovs. As honest as it is forgiving, this artist's memoir pits love and art against the ever-present threat of war.

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A groundbreaking survey of the language used around queerness in the Arab world, with contributions by leading Arab queer writers, thinkers and activists

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Longlisted for the EBRD Literature Prize Since she's been ill, Lalla Fatma has become a frail little thing with a faltering memory. Lalla Fatma thinks she's in Fez in 1944, where she grew up, not in Tangier in 2000, where this story begins. She calls out to family members who are long dead and loses herself in the streets of her childhood, yearning for her first love and the city she left behind. By her bedside, her son Tahar listens to long-hidden secrets and stories from her past: married while still playing with dolls and widowed for the first time at the age of sixteen. Guided by these fragments, Tahar vividly conjures his mother's life in post-war Morocco, unravelling the story of a woman for whom resignation was the only way out. Tender and compelling, About My Mother maps the beautiful, fragile and complex nature of human experience, while paying tribute to a remarkable woman and the bond between mother and son.

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My cleaner. She does my dirty work. She knows more about me than anyone else in the world. But does she, in fact, like me? Does her presence fill me with shame? Ugandan Mary Tendo worked for many years in the white middle-class Henman household in London, cleaning for Vanessa and looking after her only child, Justin. More than ten years after Mary has left, Justin - now twenty-two, handsome and gifted - is too depressed to get out of bed. To his mother's surprise, he asks for Mary. When Mary responds to Vanessa's cry for help and returns from Uganda to look after Justin, the balance of power in the house shifts dramatically. Both women's lives change irrevocably as tensions build towards a startling climax on a snowbound motorway. Maggie Gee confronts racism and class conflict with humour and tenderness in this moving, funny, engrossing read.

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What if Virginia Woolf came back to life in the twenty-first century?Bestselling author Angela Lamb is going through a mid-life crisis. She dumps her irrepressible daughter Gerda at boarding school and flies to New York to pursue her passion for Woolf, whose manuscripts are held in a private collection. When a bedraggled Virginia Woolf materialises among the bookshelves and is promptly evicted, Angela, stunned, rushes after her on to the streets of Manhattan. Soon Angela is chaperoning her troublesome heroine as the latter tries to grasp the internet and scams bookshops with 'rare signed editions'. Then Virginia insists on flying with her to Istanbul, finds a Turkish admirer and steals the show at an International Conference on - Virginia Woolf. Virginia Woolf in Manhattan is a witty and profound novel about the miraculous possibilities of a second chance at life.

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WINNER OF THE 2010 MAN ASIAN LITERARY PRIZE Three sisters struggle to change the course of their destinies in a China that does not belong to them. Yumi uses her dignity, Yuxiu her seductive charms, and Yuyang her desire for success. This breathtaking story vividly captures the all-consuming desire for power in a society obsessed with saving face. Whether it's in the Wang family village, where lift is attuned to the rhythm of work and the slogans of the Cultural Revolution, or in urban China of the 1980s, the sisters are not prepared to be just another wave in the 'infinite ocean of people'.

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A twelve-year old boy returns to his village from school in Cairo to find the community torn by feud and fear. Working together, the young, old, men and women in the village discover that despite high rents, low wages, a greedy ruling-class, and attractive distractions, if you are faithful to the land, it will care for you. Egyptian Earth is an epic drama of great power. This compassionate and humorous tale of defiance is a masterpiece of modern Arabic literature.

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The Earthquake offers a lucid vision of post-colonial Algeria — a society in chaos, a world turned upside down. Pioneering novelist Tahir Wattar both foretells the dreadful events which would later besiege his country and presciently demonstrates the evils of intolerance, ignorance, social classism and religious extremism in this modern classic.

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A history of two centuries of interactions among the areas bordering the western Indian Ocean, including India, Iran and Africa.

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A young Egyptian woman clashes with her traditional family when she chooses a career in medicine. Rather than submit to an arranged marriage and motherhood, she cuts her hair short and works fiercely to realise her dreams. At medical school, she begins to understand the mysteries of the human body. After years of denying her own desires, the doctor begins a series of love affairs that allow her to explore her sexuality - on her own terms.

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Since the first wave of uprisings in 2011, the euphoria of the "Arab Spring" has given way to the gloom of backlash and a descent into mayhem and war. The revolution has been overwhelmed by clashes between rival counter-revolutionary forces: resilient old regimes on the one hand and Islamic fundamentalist contenders on the other.In this eagerly awaited book, foremost Middle East and international affairs specialist Gilbert Achcar analyzes the factors of the regional relapse. Focusing on Syria and Egypt, Achcar assesses the present stage of the uprising and the main obstacles, both regional and international, that prevent any resolution. In Syria, the regime's brutality has fostered the rise of jihadist forces, among which the so-called Islamic State emerged as the most ruthless and powerful. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood's year in power was ultimately terminated by the contradictory conjunction of a second revolutionary wave and a bloody reactionary coup. Events in Syria and Egypt offer salient examples of a pattern of events happening across the Middle East.Morbid Symptoms offers a timely analysis of the ongoing Arab uprising that will engage experts and general readers alike.Drawing on a unique combination of scholarly and political knowledge of the Arab region, Achcar argues that, short of radical social change, the region will not reach stability any time soon.

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Sima Samar has been fighting for justice all her life. Born into a polygamous family, Samar agreed to an arranged marriage to continue her own education. Once she had qualified as a doctor, she took off into rural areas on horse, donkey, even on foot to treat people who had never received medical help before. As the situation worsened, Samar found herself working in increasingly adverse circumstances, and in grave personal danger.After Samar's husband was disappeared by the regime, she faced a choice: to accept the injustices she saw around her or to keep driving for a better Afghanistan. From selling her own hand embroidered bed quilt to pay for her degree, to becoming Vice President in an office with no heating and only beach chairs, Samar has worked tirelessly for human rights in Afghanistan the worst country in the world to be a woman.In Outspoken, Samar writes unapologetically and unflinchingly about the colossal internal and international political failures th

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The twelve stories collected here are by leading authors of the short story form in the Middle East today. In addition to works by writers already well-known in the West such as "Idwar al-Kharrat", "Fuad al-Takarli" and Nobel Prize-winning "Naguib Mahfouz", the collection includes stories by key authors whose fame has hitherto been restricted to the Middle East. This bilingual reader is ideal for students of Arabic as well as lovers of literature who wish to broaden their appreciation of the work of Middle Eastern writers. The collection features stories in the original Arabic, accompanied by an English translation and a brief author biography, as well as a discussion of context and background. Each story is followed by a glossary and discussion of problematic language points.

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It is a little-known secret that Arabic literature has a long tradition of erotic writing. Behind that secret lies another - that many of the writers are women. We Wrote in Symbols celebrates the works of 75 of these female writers of Arab heritage who articulate love and lust with artistry and skill. Here, a wedding night takes an unexpected turn beneath a canopy of stars; a woman on the run meets her match in a flirtatious encounter at Dubai Airport; and a carnal awakening occurs in a Palestinian refugee camp. From a masked rendezvous in a circus, to meetings in underground bars and unmade beds, there is no such thing as a typical sexual encounter, as this electrifying anthology shows. Powerfully conveying the complexities and intrigues of desire, We Wrote in Symbols invites you to share these characters' wildest fantasies and most intimate moments.

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It is the summer of 1982 and Beirut is under siege. Eighteen-year-old Ivan's parents have just been evacuated from the city with other members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Ivan stays on, interpreting for international medical volunteers in Sabra refugee camp by day, getting stoned with them by night, and working undercover for the PLO. Hoping to get closer to Eli, a Norwegian physiotherapist, he helps her treat Youssef, a camp orphan disabled by a cluster bomb. An unexpected friendship develops between the three and things begin to look up - But events take a nasty turn when the president-elect is assassinated. The Israeli army enters Beirut and surrounds the camp, with Eli and Youssef trapped inside. What happens next makes international headlines and leaves Ivan scrabbling to salvage something from the chaos.

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Surrounded by a coterie of ministers, the Imam rules over an imaginary earthly kingdom. Bint Allah is the Daughter of God, a beautiful illegitimate girl. She is falsely accused by the Imam of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning. Then, during the annual Victory Holiday, the Imam himself is killed. The story of each of these deaths is told repeatedly, as this powerful and poetic novel reveals the underlying hypocrisy of any male-dominated religious state, and the insufferable predicament of women in a society that must ultimately self-destruct.

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Egypt is the setting for this collection, but the stories are universal - whether it's the girl whose mother no longer recognises her, a young man who uses the changing political climate to avenge his despotic father, or the woman consumed by guilt for abandoning her children. Echoing V.S. Pritchett's words, they 'look for the silent moment in which our singularity breaks through, when emotions change, without warning, and reveal themselves.' And while revealing themselves they also unveil the scents and sensations of modern Cairo, from the early 1930s to the present day.

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Shaheen Merali's oeuvre extends from large-scale installations to remapping colonial history through collages and batiks. Acutely aware of how popular culture acts as a carrier of social prejudice and invective, his work is exercised specifically by the racial and racist content of popular culture. Whether it's his series of life-size paper constructions of black celebrities or his use of flowerpots and toys to represent people of colour, Merali explores and questions the relationship between racist desire and disgust, between consumer goods and art fetishes, between the sweet icing of kitsch and brutal racist violence. Through his work, it becomes clear that the most trivial objects of amusement carry an inordinate wealth of history, knowledge and prejudice. "Blackpop" covers the last decade of his work while referring to earlier work of the 1980s, with an introduction by the artist, Dave Beech, and essays by art historian Jean Fisher, film historian Adrian Rifkin, and film-maker Hito Stereyl.

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This is the first major study of the alternatives confronting Iraq as it seeks to rebuild its vital oil industry while simultaneously constructing a new political system. A key challenge facing the country is to allocate the revenues oil generates in a way that avoids economic and social instability. Reviewing the present status of the industry, the authors - including Clement Henry, Massoud Karshenas, Roger Owen, Mona Said and John Sfakianakis - use comparative analysis to suggest how it might best be rebuilt. This book is an important and timely assessment of Iraq's oil industry.

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At the outbreak of civil war in 1975, Mahmoud Khalil Saab realised that Lebanon would be changed forever. A man with a deep love for his country, he immediately set about recording eye-witness accounts of terrible events as they unfolded, as well as stories and anecdotes passed down from one generation to the next. Drawing upon historical documents and old folkloric tales of wrestling bears, sword sparring, and dancing goats, these stories convey not only the horrors of war, but also the rich social and religious diversity of a country whose legacy of generosity, courage and tolerance is rapidly being eroded by a climate of greed.

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Alfred White, a London park keeper, rules his home with conviction and tenderness. When he collapses on duty, Shirley, a black social worker, is brought face to face with Alfred's son Dirk, who hates and fears all black people. Alfred is forced to decide whether justice matters more than kinship.

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The experience of colour in Islamic visual culture has historically been overlooked. In this new approach, Idries Trevathan examines the language of colour in Islamic art and architecture in dialogue with its aesthetic contexts, offering insights into the pre-modern Muslim experience of interpreting colour. The seventeenth-century Shah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran, represents one of the finest examples of colour-use on a grand scale. Here, Trevathan examines the philosophical and mystical traditions that formed the mosque's backdrop. He shows how careful combinations of colour and design proportions in Islamic patterns expresses knowledge beyond that experienced in the corporeal world, offering another language with which to know and experience God. Colour thus becomes a spiritual language, calling for a re-consideration of how we read Islamic aesthetics.

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1970s London: Young Michael runs past the railway arches and terraces of Vauxhall. Reaching the street on which he lives, he witnesses a young girl fall from a window, her sari floating down behind her. Her lifeless body lies crumpled on the ground. This incident marks the beginning of a period in which Michael's life threatens to unravel. From his sister's taunts to a series of house fires, police harassment, his parents' crumbling marriage and the realisation that the council intends to clear out the 'slum' he calls home, he learns to navigate his way through an array of obstacles, big and small. An extraordinary debut novel, Vauxhall tells a warm and hopeful story of a young boy and the city that surrounds him.

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Features stories of dysfunctional marriages, abnormal goings on in rural outposts, urban alienation and kitchen sink dramas where the woman is no longer tied to the kitchen sink, but railing against past wrongs. This work also talks about various issues of domestic violence, child abuse, and abortion.

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A young Palestinian named Usama returns from working in the Gulf to support the resistance movement. His mission is to blow up buses transporting Palestinian workers into Israel. Shocked to discover that many of his fellow citizens have adjusted to life under military rule, Usama sets out to accomplish his mission ...with disastrous consequences. Wild Thorns is the first Arab novel to offer a glimpse of social and personal relations under Israeli occupation. Featuring unsentimental portrayals of everyday life, its uncompromising honesty and rich emotional core plead elegantly for the cause of survival in the face of oppression.

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The year is 1970, a period of crisis in the Arab world. Twenty-year-old Hisham has left home for the Saudi-Arabian capital Riyadh, where he's enrolled at university to study politics and economics. But this city has more than academic qualifications to offer a man of Hisham's mettle, and he soon discovers a strange underworld of alcohol and prostitution where fear, pleasure and politics merge. Here hospitals prove the richest cruising grounds, the desert is the place for illicit couplings, and now Hisham is spying on the bedroom activities of his next-door-neighbour's wife, who has taken to leaving her door ajar...Meanwhile, Hisham's disillusioned childhood friend Adnan abandons his artistic ambitions in favour of a loftier cause - Islamism. The two friends - who rapidly grow estranged - come to symbolise the opposite extremes of life in a repressive closed society.

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Inspired by timeless poems from around the world, Hassan Massoudy's calligraphy takes us on a visual journey through love in its many forms. Through his signature broad strokes and vibrant colours, this master calligrapher brings to life the words and wisdom of some of our greatest poets, from Ibn Zaydoun and Rumi to Kahlil Gibran, John Keats and Paul Eluard. Beautifully designed and illustrated throughout, Calligraphies of Love is the perfect gift for lovers, poets and dreamers.

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Egyptian cities and villages abound with an enormous wealth of khatt, or calligraphic script, ranging from casual scrawls and scribbles to elaborately-painted colourful murals. These historical and contemporary versions of urban lettering, varying in surface, medium and technique, adorn mosques, shop-fronts, houses, trucks, boats, schools, tuk-tuks and walls. They are records of human existence, documenting expressions of hope, fears, dreams and anxieties. Featuring beautiful and unique examples of these written expressions, Khatt is an extensive visual documentation of the found typography and calligraphy in Egypt, a calligraphy hub that possesses a rich tradition of education and production in the field. This timely volume records the traditional craftsmanship of hand-painted calligraphy, which is fast disappearing because of the digitization of the Arabic script. www.khattegypt.com/

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The prevailing belief among Muslims is that, because the Qur'an is the Word of God and God is eternal, it follows that His Word is also eternal. The belief is based on the postulate that the Word of God must be of the same nature as God Himself. Mahmoud Hussein refutes this by showing that it contradicts the very teachings of the Qur'an. Whereas God transcends time, His Word is inscribed within time. It is not a monologue, but a living exchange, through which God reveals to His Prophet different orders of truth, weaving together the absolute and the relative, the general and the particular, the eternal and the contingent. An international bestseller, Understanding the Qur'an today offers a new perspective on one of the world's most influential texts and adds an invaluable contribution to the debate on Islam and modernity.

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Does Islam call for the oppression of women? The subjugation of women in many Muslim countries is often used as evidence of this, while many Muslims read the Qur'an in ways that seem to justify sexual oppression and inequality. In this paradigm-shifting book, Asma Barlas argues that, far from supporting male privilege, the Qur'an actually affirms the complete equality of the sexes. Offering a historical analysis of religious authority and knowledge, Barlas shows how, for centuries, Muslims have read patriarchy into the Qur'an to justify existing religious and social structures. In this seminal volume, she takes readers into the heart of Islamic teachings on women, gender and patriarchy, offering an egalitarian reading of Islam's most sacred scripture. This revised edition includes two new chapters, a new preface, and updates throughout.

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Examines the causes of the September 11, 2001 attacks, and also provides a reasoned approach as to what the future may hold. As the dust settled around the devastation of the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001, a host of questions emerged surrounding the attacks, the motives behind them and their future implications. In Two Hours that Shook the World Fred Halliday expands on the many socio-cultural, religious and political problems that have plagued the Middle East and Central Asia in the last half-century. Much has been written about 'global terrorism' and the need to eliminate it but also about the divide between East and West, the 'clash of civilisations'. Halliday dispels the idea that the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds are poised for conflict. He explains the causes and rise of Islamic fundamentalism, how terror became an instrument of political and military conflict, and why seemingly well-educated and sane individuals are taking drastic actions to voice their desperation. The burden of history is also invoked, as with the Palestinian-Israeli situation, the festering malaise at the heart of Middle Eastern consciousness and identity. While Halliday's book examines the causes of what has happened, it also provides a reasoned approach as to what the future may hold.

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Rembrandt, Vermeer et le Siecle d'or hollandais presente les pieces les plus remarquables de l'une des collections particulieres les plus importantes dans ce domaine, la collection Leiden, New York, ainsi qu'un choix d'/uvres provenant du Louvre. Ce catalogue d'exposition met en lumiere l'extraordinaire epanouissement de l'art au dix-septieme siecle, pendant la periode appelee Siecle d'or hollandais, marquee par une prosperite sans precedent. Pionniers de la nature morte, du realisme, du portrait, du paysage, de la peinture de genre, des artistes tels que Rembrandt, Vermeer, Jan Lievens, Gerard Dou, Frans van Mieris ou Frans Hals ont insuffle une vie nouvelle dans l'art hollandais, suscitant un reveil artistique national. Leurs /uvres reunies ici donnent un apercu du Siecle d'or hollandais, ce temps ou l'ouverture vers de nouveaux horizons engendra des formes d'expression artistique captivantes.

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Based on interviews with Islamic State insiders, Abdel Bari Atwan reveals the origins and modus operandi of the fastest-growing and richest terrorist group in the world. Outlining its leadership structure and strategies, Atwan describes the group's ideological differences with al-Qa`ida and why IS appear to pose a greater threat to the West. He shows how it has masterfully used social media, Hollywood `blockbuster'-style videos, and even jihadi computer games to spread its message and to recruit young people, from Tunisia to Bradford. As Islamic State continues to dominate the world's media headlines with acts of ruthless violence, Atwan considers its chances of survival and offers indispensable insight into potential government responses to contain the IS threat.

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It's the 2030s in Ramsgate and four people who don't look quite human are found sitting, naked, in the early spring sunlight on the quay of a quiet south coast resort. The locals are puzzled - the newcomers are larger and heavier than them and say they are fleeing the heat. Soon more arrive; their tall red-haired leader, The Professor, talks to the universe. The locals talk among themselves. Red people appear everywhere, making friends, going into the caves, liked by some but accused of bringing infection by others. Two rivalrous brothers, Liam and Joe, take different sides as one joins a notorious hard-right group. Their teacher Monica is the first to warn there'll be trouble - and she's right, there is, but there is also a great Midsummer Festival, laughter and love. Set in a world in crisis, this original, gripping fable about migration and global warming restores belief in the power of human kindness.

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A linguist flying to a conference in Helsinki has landed in a strange city where he can't understand a word anyone says. As one claustrophobic day follows another, he wonders why no one has found him yet, whether his wife has given him up for dead, and how he'll get by in this society that looks so familiar, yet is so strange. In a vision of hell, unlike any previously imagined, Budai must learn to survive in a world where words and meaning are unconnected. This is a suspenseful and haunting Hungarian classic.

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A Sunday Times Best Humour Book of the Year 2017 How can you tell if your neighbour is speaking Muslim? Is a mosque a kind of hedgehog? Can I get fries with that burka? You can't trust the media any longer, but there's no need to fret: Don't Panic, I'm Islamic: Words and Pictures on How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Alien Next Door provides you with the answers. Read this book to learn how you too can spot an elusive Islamist. Discover how Arabs (even 21-year-old, largely innocuous and totally adorable ones) plant bombs and get tips about how to interact with Homeland Security, which may or may not involve funny discussions about your sexuality. Commissioned in response to the US travel ban, Don't Panic, I'm Islamic includes cartoons, graffiti, photography, colouring in pages, memoir, short stories and more by 34 contributors from around the world. Provocative and at times laugh-out-loud funny, these subversive pieces are an explosion of expression, creativity and colour. Contributors: Hassan Abdulrazzak, Leila Aboulela, Amrou Al-Kadhi, Shadi Alzaqzouq, Chant Avedissian, Tammam Azzam, Bidisha, Chaza Charafeddine, Molly Crabapple, Carol Ann Duffy, Moris Farhi, Negin Farsad, Joumana Haddad, Saleem Haddad, Hassan Hajjaj, Omar Hamdi, Jennifer Jajeh, Sayed Kashua, Mazen Kerbaj, Arwa Mahdawi, Sabrina Mahfouz, Alberto Manguel, Esther Manito, Aisha Mirza, James Nunn, Chris Riddell, Hazem Saghieh, Rana Salam, Karl Sharro, Laila Shawa, Bahia Shehab, Sjon, Eli Valley, Alex Wheatle.

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In the mid-eighteenth century, most of the Mediterranean coastline and its hinterlands were controlled by the Ottoman Empire, a vast Islamic power regarded by Christian Europe with awe and fear. By the end of the First World War, however, this great civilisation had been completely subjugated, and its territories occupied by European powers. Sea of Troubles is the definitive account of the European conquest of the Levant and North Africa over three centuries. Ian Rutledge reveals the intense imperial rivalry between six European powers - Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Austria-Hungary and Russia - who all jostled for control of the trade, lands and wealth of the Islamic Mediterranean. The competition between these states made their conquest a far more difficult and extended task than they encountered elsewhere in the world. Yet, as new contenders entered the contest, and as rivalries intensified in the early twentieth century, events would spiral out of control as the continent headed towards the First World War.

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The 1400-year-old schism between Sunnis and Shi'is is currently reflected in the destructive struggle for hegemony between Saudi Arabia and Iran - with no apparent end in sight. But how did this conflict begin, and why is it now the focus of so much attention? In this definitive account, John McHugo charts the history of Islam from the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad to the present day. He describes the conflicts that raged over the succession to the Prophet, how Sunnism and Shi'ism evolved as different sects during the Abbasid caliphate, and how the rivalry between the empires of the Sunni Ottomans and Shi'i Safavids ensured that the split would continue into the modern age. In recent decades, this centuries-old divide has acquired a new toxicity resulting in violence across the Arab and Muslim world.

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