Hakawati

In 2003, Osama Al-Kharrat Returns To Beirut After Many Years In America To Stand Vigil At His Fathers Deathbed. As The Family Gathers, Stories Begin To Unfold: Osamas 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.