Rabih Alameddine Bücher

Aaliya ist 72 Jahre alt und lebt allein in einer Wohnung in Beirut. Allein, seit sie mit Anfang zwanzig kinderlos von ihrem Mann geschieden wurde. Seitdem umgibt sie sich mit Büchern. Sie arbeitet als Buchhändlerin und übersetzt jedes Jahr eines ihrer Lieblingswerke ins Arabische. Wieder neigt sich das Jahr dem Ende zu und zum ersten Mal ist Aaliya unsicher, welches Buch sie als nächstes übersetzen soll. Sie beginnt ihr Alter zu spüren. Erinnerungen durchziehen ihre Gedanken. An ihre Familie. An das Leben in Beirut während des Bürgerkriegs. An Hannah, ihre einzige Freundin. „Großartig." (Rachel Kushner) Gewinner 2015 California Book Award.

The novel explores Sarah's journey of self-discovery amidst the complexities of her hybrid family and the backdrop of wartime Beirut. As she navigates her life in self-imposed exile in the United States, she sheds layers of pretension, revealing her authentic self. Supported by a close friend and her son, Sarah embraces both her dignity and the fragmented nature of her existence. The narrative is imbued with humor and heartache, presenting a poignant and memorable exploration of humanity. A reading group guide is also included.

By National Book Award finalist and Dos Passos Prize winner, Rabih Alameddine, comes a transporting new novel about an Arab American trans woman's personal journey among Syrian refugees on Lesbos island.

“Here is absolute beauty. One of the finest novels I’ve read in years.” —Junot DiazAn astonishingly inventive, wonderfully exuberant novel that takes us from the shimmering dunes of ancient Egypt to the war-torn streets of twenty-first-century Lebanon.In 2003, Osama al-Kharrat returns to Beirut after many years in America to stand vigil at his father’s deathbed. The city is a shell of the Beirut Osama remembers, but he and his friends and family take solace in the things that have always sustained gossip, laughter, and, above all, stories.Osama’s grandfather was a hakawati, or storyteller, and his bewitching stories—of his arrival in Lebanon, an orphan of the Turkish wars, and of how he earned the name al-Kharrat , the fibster—are interwoven with classic tales of the Middle East, stunningly reimagined. Here are Abraham and Isaac; Ishmael, father of the Arab tribes; the ancient, fabled Fatima; and Baybars, the slave prince who vanquished the Crusaders. Here, too, are contemporary Lebanese whose stories tell a larger, heartbreaking tale of seemingly endless war—and of survival.Like a true hakawati, Rabih Alameddine has given us an Arabian Nights for this century—a funny, captivating novel that enchants and dazzles from its very first “Listen. Let me take you on a journey beyond imagining. Let me tell you a story.”

Following the critical and commercial success of An Unnecessary Woman, Alameddine delivers a spectacular portrait of a man and an era of profound political and social upheaval.

"Hakawati. Il cantore di storie" di Rabih Alameddine è un caso letterario: sia perché l'autore, giordano, di origine libanese apre una finestra su un mondo problematico; sia perché, mantenendo un alto livello di qualità letteraria, Alameddine, al suo terzo romanzo, riesce a mettere a confronto l'arte dello storytelling di tradizione araba con la cultura americana che il protagonista e l'autore hanno assorbito per molti anni. Nel romanzo, il protagonista, Osama al-Kharrat, lascia nel 2003 gli Stati Uniti, dove vive da tempo, per recarsi al capezzale del padre a Beirut. E se scopre la sua città natale irrimediabilmente cambiata, trova invece intatti gli affetti famigliari e il modo di comunicarli attraverso le storie. Cantastorie di professione era infatti il nonno di Osama, e le avventure del suo arrivo in Libano dalla Turchia si mescolano a quelle dei principi delle Crociate come pure ai pettegolezzi della vita di tutti i giorni.