Fiery and candid; a provocative and courageous exploration of what it means to be an Arab woman today.

For centuries the heroine of "The Arabian Nights," Scheherazade, defined the Arab woman--until Joumana Haddad, an Arab woman herself, had had enough. Haddad angrily challenges prevalent notions of identity and womanhood in the Middle East in this intrepid exploration. While she finds the West's dominant portrayal of Arab women appalling, she finds the image projected by many Middle Eastern women to be infuriating as well. She discusses her intellectual development and the liberating effect of literature on her life, and in the process she transcends religious and cultural perspectives. Ultimately she argues that every woman has not only the right but the duty to ignore social, political, and sexual expectations and be true to herself. Fiery and candid, this is a provocative exploration of what it means to be an Arab woman today that will enlighten and inform a new international feminism. For Haddad, Scheherazade is dead, and the time has come for Arab women to tell their own stories.

September 1905. At the heart of the Ottoman Empire, in the ancient city of Smyrna, Scheherazade is born to an opium-dazed mother. At the very same moment, an Indian spy sails into the golden-hued, sycamore-scented city with a secret mission from the British Empire. When he leaves, 17 years later, it will be to the smell of kerosene and smoke as the city, and its people, are engulfed in flames. Told through the intertwining fates of a Levantine, a Greek, a Turkish and an Armenian family, this unforgettable novel reveals a city, and a culture, now lost to time. 'Fiercely intelligent, finely textured and achingly beautiful' Elif Shafak 'Utterly delightful' Buki Papillon 'This rich tale of love and loss gives voice to the silenced, and adds music to their histories' Maureen Freely, Chair, English PEN 'A must-read' Ayse Arman, Hu ̈rriyet 'A symphony of literature' Açik Radyo 'Defne Suman is a story-teller. She tells the story of how love, emotions and identities are influenced by socio-political events of a lifetime' Cumhuriyet Newspaper 'A wonderfully braided story of family secrets set in the magical city of Smyrna, told in luminous prose' Lou Ureneck, author of Smyrna, September 1922

In this provocative book Joumana Haddad uses the format of the political pamphlet to describe the liberating impact of literature on her life. She tells of reading the Marquis de Sade at twelve, of her metamorphosis into an award-winning poet, and reflects upon how this has shaped her as an Arab woman, as a writer and as a magazine editor. Joumana challenges prevalent notions of identity and womanhood in the Middle East and speaks of how she came to create the Arab world's first erotic literary magazine, Jasad (Body), that has earned her both admiration and censure. Fiery and candid, I Killed Scheherazade is a provocative exploration of what it means to be an 'Arab woman' today.

This is not a manifesto against men in general. Nor is it a manifesto against Arab men in particular. It is, however, a howl in the face of a particular species of men: the macho species, Supermen, as they like to envision themselves. But Superman is a lie. In this explosive sequel to I Killed Scheherazade, Joumana Haddad examines the patriarchal system that continues to dominate in the Arab world and beyond. From monotheist religions and the concept of marriage to institutionalised machismo and widespread double standards, Haddad reflects upon the vital need for a new masculinity in these times of revolution and change in the Middle East. 'The revolution and its backlash are not just being fought in the streets, squares and elections across the Middle East, but also on the faces and bodies of millions of Arab women and their sisters across the world. Haddad speaks for all of us. It's time to listen.' Bidisha 'One of the most intelligent, talented and courageous young Arab poets and intellectuals today' Mahmoud Darwish 'The Germain Greer of Lebanon' Independent.

A book of history, heritage, loyalty, religion, feminism, families, and the Armenian genocide The Book of Queens is a family saga that spans four generations of women caught up in the tragic whirlwind of turf wars and suffering in the Middle East—from the Armenian genocide and the Israeli occupation of Palestine to modern-day civil wars and the struggles between Christians and Muslims in Lebanon and Syria. Four queens of a deck of cards dealt a bad hand by fate—Qayah, Qana, Qadar and Qamar—form the branches of the same family tree rooted in the land of their origins despite the forceful winds that repeatedly try to carry them away. A line of red-haired women united by the ties of blood that runs through their veins—which violence has spread through the ages—each with a deep story and all with one thing in common: unwavering power and resilience in the face of adversities of being a woman in a war-torn region. With the perfect mastery of finely chiseled writing, Joumana Haddad manages to construct a novel of extraordinary intensity, without ever sinking into pathos or grandiloquence. She also challenges the systematic abuse of political and religious power and authority that continues to cloud the lives of a culturally diverse and progressive youth until the present day.

Ten stories from the Tales of a Thousand and One Nights, including the well-known ones of Aladdin and the lamp, Ali Baba and the forty thieves, and Sinbad the sailor.