HAKAWATI
Lebanon, fictionFiction, generalFictionStorytellersNew York Times reviewed
3.5
Open LibraryAbout this book
In 2003, Osama al-Kharrat returns to Beirut after many years in America to stand vigil at his father's deathbed. As the family gathers, stories begin to unfold: Osama's grandfather was a hakawati, or storyteller, and his bewitching tales are interwoven with classic stories of the Middle East. Here are Abraham and Isaac; Ishmael, father of the Arab tribes; the beautiful Fatima; Baybars, the slave prince who vanquished the Crusaders; and a host of mischievous imps. Through Osama, we also enter the world of the contemporary Lebanese men and women whose stories tell a larger, heartbreaking tale of seemingly endless war, conflicted identity, and survival. With The Hakawati, Rabih Alameddine has given us an Arabian Nights for this century.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Themes & subjects
Lebanon, fictionFiction, generalFictionStorytellersNew York Times reviewedGossip
Characters & people
Setting
Middle East
About the author
Rabih Alameddine
1959
Rabih Alameddine is a painter and the author of the National Book Award-winning *The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)*, as well as the novels *An Unnecessary Woman*; *I, the Divine*; *Koolaids*; *The Hakawati*; and the story collection, *The Perv*. He divides his time between San Francisco and Beirut.
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