The Nights are Quiet in Tehran, by Shida Bazyar, begins with the love story of Behsad and Nahid. Over the course of thirty years, the novel follows the lives of the couple and their children. Continue reading Translation Tuesdays: The Nights are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar
From the author of The Kindly Ones, comes a raw street-level look at the situation in Syria. Continue reading Syrian Notebooks: Inside the Homs Uprising, by Jonathan Littell @ NYJB
This week for my penultimate entry in the On Being Human series I examine “Nekropolis” by Maureen McHugh, a novel about an artificial being called a harni and Hariba, a woman who has been “jessed” into subservience. Continue reading On Being Human: Nekropolis, by Maureen McHugh
“I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his country.” Patton (1970), screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola. “Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things … I would not refer to him as a dictator.” Vice President Joe Biden (2011) “God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated egos: He will set them … Continue reading Brothers in Arms: The Story of Al-Qa’ida and the Arab Jihadists by Camille Tawil
The Driftless Area Review 