Download or read book Cities of Salt written by ʻAbd al-Raḥmān Munīf and published by Jonathan Cape. This book was released on 1988 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spell-binding evocation of Bedouin life in the 1930s when oil is discovered by Americans in an unnamed Persian Gulf kingdom.

Download or read book Cities of Salt written by Abdelrahman Munif and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 1989-07-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Banned in Saudia Arabia, this is a blistering look at Arab and American hypocrisy following the discovery of oil in a poor oasis community.

Download or read book Cities of Salt written by Abdelrahman Munif and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 627 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Trench written by Abdelrahman Munif and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1993-08-10 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of the most highly regarded writers of Arabic literature, Trench is the second volume in the epic quintet Cities of Salt. Tracing the economic history of the Arabic world, Munif picks up where Vol. I left off, with the effects of the discovery of oil reserves in the region beginning to show their true colors. Following The Doctor as he is invited by the Sultan of Harran, the character watches as the royalty succumbs to corruption and greed, and in turn, the political and natural destruction of his homeland. Praise for Trench “Munif’s wonderful novel is a welcome corrective. . . . [It] deepens, enriches and above all humanizes whatever sense of Arab culture we may have.”—The New York Times Book Review “[T]his sly, patient dissection of a sultanate grown too rich for its own survival makes it clear why the author lost his own Saudi citizenship.”—Kirkus Reviews

Download or read book Salt Houses written by Hala Alyan and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-05-02 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Arab American Book Award A Best Book of the Year: NPR • NYLON • Kirkus • Bustle • BookPage "What does home mean when you no longer have a house—or a homeland? This beautiful novel traces one Palestinian family's struggle with that question and how it can haunt generations. . . . This is an example of how fiction is often the best filter for the real world around us." — NPR Lyrical and heartbreaking, Salt Houses follows three generations of a Palestinian family and asks us to confront that most devastating of all truths: you can’t go home again. On the eve of her daughter Alia’s wedding, Salma reads the girl’s future in a cup of coffee dregs. She sees an unsettled life for Alia and her children; she also sees travel and luck. While she chooses to keep her predictions to herself that day, they will all soon come to pass when the family is uprooted in the wake of the Six-Day War of 1967. Salma is forced to leave her home in Nablus; Alia’s brother gets pulled into a politically militarized world he can’t escape; and Alia and her gentle-spirited husband move to Kuwait City, where they reluctantly build a life with their three children. When Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait in 1990, Alia and her family once again lose their home and their land, scattering to Beirut, Paris, Boston, and beyond. Soon Alia’s children begin families of their own, once again navigating the burdens (and blessings) of assimilation in foreign cities. Salt Houses is a remarkable debut novel that challenges and humanizes an age-old conflict we might think we understand.

Download or read book The Years of Rice and Salt written by Kim Stanley Robinson and published by Spectra. This book was released on 2003-06-03 with total page 777 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the same unique vision that brought his now classic Mars trilogy to vivid life, bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson boldly imagines an alternate history of the last seven hundred years. In his grandest work yet, the acclaimed storyteller constructs a world vastly different from the one we know. . . . “A thoughtful, magisterial alternate history from one of science fiction’s most important writers.”—The New York Times Book Review It is the fourteenth century and one of the most apocalyptic events in human history is set to occur—the coming of the Black Death. History teaches us that a third of Europe’s population was destroyed. But what if the plague had killed 99 percent of the population instead? How would the world have changed? This is a look at the history that could have been—one that stretches across centuries, sees dynasties and nations rise and crumble, and spans horrible famine and magnificent innovation. Through the eyes of soldiers and kings, explorers and philosophers, slaves and scholars, Robinson navigates a world where Buddhism and Islam are the most influential and practiced religions, while Christianity is merely a historical footnote. Probing the most profound questions as only he can, Robinson shines his extraordinary light on the place of religion, culture, power—and even love—in this bold New World. “Exceptional and engrossing.”—New York Post “Ambitious . . . ingenious.”—Newsday

Download or read book Salt written by Mark Kurlansky and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2011-03-18 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the award-winning and bestselling author of Cod comes the dramatic, human story of a simple substance, an element almost as vital as water, that has created fortunes, provoked revolutions, directed economies and enlivened our recipes. Salt is common, easy to obtain and inexpensive. It is the stuff of kitchens and cooking. Yet trade routes were established, alliances built and empires secured – all for something that filled the oceans, bubbled up from springs, formed crusts in lake beds, and thickly veined a large part of the Earth’s rock fairly close to the surface. From pre-history until just a century ago – when the mysteries of salt were revealed by modern chemistry and geology – no one knew that salt was virtually everywhere. Accordingly, it was one of the most sought-after commodities in human history. Even today, salt is a major industry. Canada, Kurlansky tells us, is the world’s sixth largest salt producer, with salt works in Ontario playing a major role in satisfying the Americans’ insatiable demand. As he did in his highly acclaimed Cod, Mark Kurlansky once again illuminates the big picture by focusing on one seemingly modest detail. In the process, the world is revealed as never before.

Download or read book Variations on Night and Day written by Abdelrahman Munif and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 1994-11-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Full of Machiavellian intrigue and searing political satire, Variations on Night and Day, the final volume of Munif's landmark Cities of Salt trilogy, chronicles the creation of a Persian Gulf nation by a corrupt Arab monarch and conniving British empire builders.

Download or read book The Salt of the Earth written by Jozef Wittlin and published by Pushkin Press. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classic pacifist novel by a major Polish writer, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize At the beginning of the twentieth century the villagers of the Carpathian mountains lead a simple life, much as they have always done. Among them is Piotr, a bandy-legged peasant, who wants nothing more from life than an official railway cap, a cottage, and a bride with a dowry. But then the First World War reaches the mountains and Piotr is drafted into the army. All the weight of imperial authority is used to mould him into an unthinking fighting machine, forced to fight a war he does not understand, for interests other than his own. The Salt of the Earth is a classic war novel and a powerfully pacifist tale about the consequences of war for ordinary men.

Download or read book Cities of Salt written by ʻAbd al-Raḥmān Munīf and published by Random House (NY). This book was released on 1987 with total page 646 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Banned in Saudia Arabia, this is a blistering look at Arab and American hypocrisy following the discovery of oil in a poor oasis community. "From the Trade Paperback edition.

Download or read book Desert Cities written by Michael F. Logan and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2012-01-12 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Phoenix is known as the "Valley of the Sun," while Tucson is referred to as "The Old Pueblo." These nicknames epitomize the difference in the public's perception of each city. Phoenix continues to sprawl as one of America's largest and fastest-growing cities. Tucson has witnessed a slower rate of growth, and has only one quarter of Phoenix's population. This was not always the case. Prior to 1920, Tucson had a larger population. How did two cities, with such close physical proximity and similar natural environments develop so differently?Desert Cities examines the environmental circumstances that led to the starkly divergent growth of these two cities. Michael Logan traces this significant imbalance to two main factors: water resources and cultural differences. Both cities began as agricultural communities. Phoenix had the advantage of a larger water supply, the Salt River, which has four and one half times the volume of Tucson's Santa Cruz River. Because Phoenix had a larger river, it received federal assistance in the early twentieth century for the Salt River project, which provided water storage facilities. Tucson received no federal aid. Moreover, a significant cultural difference existed. Tucson, though it became a U.S. possession in 1853, always had a sizable Hispanic population. Phoenix was settled in the 1870s by Anglo pioneers who brought their visions of landscape development and commerce with them.By examining the factors of watershed, culture, ethnicity, terrain, political favoritism, economic development, and history, Desert Cities offers a comprehensive evaluation that illuminates the causes of growth disparity in two major southwestern cities and provides a model for the study of bi-city resource competition.

Download or read book The Map of Salt and Stars written by Zeyn Joukhadar and published by Atria Books. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This powerful and lyrical debut novel is to Syria what The Kite Runner was to Afghanistan; the story of two girls living eight hundred years apart—a modern-day Syrian refugee seeking safety and an adventurous mapmaker’s apprentice—“perfectly aligns with the cultural moment” (The Providence Journal) and “shows how interconnected two supposedly opposing worlds can be” (The New York Times Book Review). This “beguiling” (Seattle Times) and stunning novel begins in the summer of 2011. Nour has just lost her father to cancer, and her mother moves Nour and her sisters from New York City back to Syria to be closer to their family. In order to keep her father’s spirit alive as she adjusts to her new home, Nour tells herself their favorite story—the tale of Rawiya, a twelfth-century girl who disguised herself as a boy in order to apprentice herself to a famous mapmaker. But the Syria Nour’s parents knew is changing, and it isn’t long before the war reaches their quiet Homs neighborhood. When a shell destroys Nour’s house and almost takes her life, she and her family are forced to choose: stay and risk more violence or flee across seven countries of the Middle East and North Africa in search of safety—along the very route Rawiya and her mapmaker took eight hundred years before in their quest to chart the world. As Nour’s family decides to take the risk, their journey becomes more and more dangerous, until they face a choice that could mean the family will be separated forever. Following alternating timelines and a pair of unforgettable heroines coming of age in perilous times, The Map of Salt and Stars is the “magical and heart-wrenching” (Christian Science Monitor) story of one girl telling herself the legend of another and learning that, if you listen to your own voice, some things can never be lost.

Download or read book The Book of Salt written by Monique Truong and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2004-06-15 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A novel of Paris in the 1930s from the eyes of the Vietnamese cook employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, by the author of The Sweetest Fruits. Viewing his famous mesdames and their entourage from the kitchen of their rue de Fleurus home, Binh observes their domestic entanglements while seeking his own place in the world. In a mesmerizing tale of yearning and betrayal, Monique Truong explores Paris from the salons of its artists to the dark nightlife of its outsiders and exiles. She takes us back to Binh's youthful servitude in Saigon under colonial rule, to his life as a galley hand at sea, to his brief, fateful encounters in Paris with Paul Robeson and the young Ho Chi Minh. Winner of the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award A Best Book of the Year: New York Times, Village Voice, Seattle Times, Miami Herald, San Jose Mercury News, and others “An irresistible, scrupulously engineered confection that weaves together history, art, and human nature…a veritable feast.”—Los Angeles Times “A debut novel of pungent sensuousness and intricate, inspired imagination…a marvelous tale.”—Elle “Addictive…Deliciously written…Both eloquent and original.”—Entertainment Weekly “A mesmerizing narrative voice, an insider's view of a fabled literary household and the slow revelation of heartbreaking secrets contribute to the visceral impact of this first novel.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

Download or read book Darien written by C. F. Iggulden and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2017-07-13 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover your new favourite fantasy series . . . _______________ The city of Darien lies at the heart of a dying empire. Twelve families spoil for a throne soon to be made vacant - by murder or civil war. Into this fevered, hungry city come six strangers: An orphan and an old swordsman. A hunter and a pitiless killer. A young thief and a cynical chancer. As the sun sinks the city will know no slumber. For long dormant passions have awoken. Fortunes will be won and lost. Lives will be staked and claimed. And a story long waiting to be told will catch fire in the telling . . . _______________ What readers think . . . 'One of the best fantasy novels I've read' ***** 'I'm a huge fan of Iggulden, but this takes it to another level' ***** 'A must-read and a very welcome addition to the genre' ***** 'Enough machinations, conspiracies and controversies to rival Game of Thrones' ***** 'If you love David Gemmel, you will love this' ***** _______________ Darien is the first book in the Empire of Salt, THE epic fantasy series of spellbinding imagination . . .

Download or read book Salt written by Hannah Moskowitz and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2018-10-30 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roaming the Mediterranean Sea on sailboats and hunting down monsters is the only life seventeen-year-old Indi and his siblings have ever known. He never loved it, but now that his parents are gone—vanished during a hunt three months ago—it's harder and harder to fight his desire to escape. He's constantly battling his ferocious love for his siblings and the temptation of his parents' journal, which contains directions to a treasure that their parents hinted at. Maybe it's something valuable enough to distract Beleza from her mission to hunt down the monster that killed their parents. Something that would take the little kids away from the sea that's turning Oscar into a pirate and wasting Zulu's brilliant six-year-old mind. Something that could give Indi a normal life. Acclaimed author Hannah Moskowitz has reinvented yet another genre in this ridiculously propulsive epic that is part seafaring epic, part coming-of-age tale, and a totally warm-hearted story of a boy who loves his family and just wants to figure his own self out—if only the fate of the world weren't on his shoulders.

Download or read book Salt Lick written by Lulu Allison and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2021-09-16 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 'A compelling fable of decline, a lament for a way of life, and a warning about what society is already becoming. It is a capsule of England and its dystopian present ... as sad and angry as it is memorable' Rónán Hession 'Salt Lick is that rare beast – imaginative, risky storytelling where every sentence is a gift' Heidi James Britain is awash, the sea creeps into the land, brambles and forest swamp derelict towns. Food production has moved overseas and people are forced to move to the cities for work. The countryside is empty. A chorus, the herd voice of feral cows, wander this newly wild land watching over changing times, speaking with love and exasperation. Jesse and his puppy Mister Maliks roam the woods until his family are forced to leave for London. Lee runs from the terrible restrictions of the White Town where he grew up. Isolde leaves London on foot, walking the abandoned A12 in search of the truth about her mother.

Download or read book Alas Babylon written by Pat Frank and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2005-07-05 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classic apocalyptic novel that stunned the world.