Key Selling Points • Interlink’s 2022 charity cookbook to raise awareness and funds for the Lebanese Food Bank • Long-awaited new cookbook from award-winning and bestselling author of Soup for Syria • 100 easy-to-prepare recipes that showcase Lebanon’s culinary heritage • Filled with stories and anecdotes about the food and people • Stunning food and location photography that portray Beirut’s culture before and after the blast that devastated half the city • Strong author connections with the international Slow Food movement • Mediterranean cuisine is widely known to be healthful. A new cookbook from the bestselling author of Soup for Syria to support the Lebanese Food Bank and help families in dire need of food after the devastating blast and ensuing economic collapse Beirut, nicknamed “Paris of the East,” is the capital of Lebanon. It is the culinary capital of the Arab world, with an unmatched cuisine that has ancient roots and is influenced by a number of civilizations and cooking styles, including Arab, Turkish, and French. It is one of the oldest cities in the world and one of the most cosmopolitan and religiously diverse in the region. Situated on the Mediterranean coast and flanked by the majestic Mount Lebanon, it boasts an abundance of flavorful ingredients and spices, including whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and seafood. Written by renowned Lebanese chef and award-winning cookbook writer Barbara Abdeni Massaad, Forever Beirut is a collection of 100 easy-to-prepare recipes that celebrate Beirut’s rich culinary heritage, its resilience, and healing power. It is Barbara’s way of honoring the city of her childhood, her dreams, her Lebanese family kitchen, and the food that roots her. It is filled with stories and anecdotes about the customs, food, people, and traditions, with sections for soups, salads, breads and savory pastries, mezze, kibbeh, grilling, main dishes, pickles and preserves, and sweets. With beautiful food and location photography, Forever Beirut is a must-have for cooks who love healthful and delicious Middle Eastern food.

PRESERVING FOOD AND CULTURE THE LEBANESE WAY -- The very best memories connecting us to time and place are often stimulated by the tastes and smells of our childhood. Freshly-baked bread, hot from the oven, sweet homemade jam dribbling down our chins, or the burst of flavor in each dried grape—these memories bring a smile to our faces even as they call to mind the people who made them possible. Do you remember working alongside your grandmother as she lovingly preserved garden-fresh foods to set back for the winter? You watched Jiddo (grandfather) patiently prepare his arak, but could you reproduce his efforts from memory? Are you lucky enough that they kept written records of recipes gleaned from family history and years of experience? If so, count yourself among the very fortunate minority. The reality for many of us is that we no longer enjoy such a strong connection to our culinary roots. As much as we might wish the contrary, the beauty and simplicity of home-preserved pantry items, the mouneh, taken for granted during our childhood, often seems a lifetime away. In Barbara Abdeni Massaad’s book, Mouneh: Preserving Foods for the Lebanese Pantry, we’ve been thrown a lifeline to a piece of our cultural and culinary identity. So many things we would love to recreate for our own families become possible within these pages, thanks to the author’s diligent research, stunning photography, simply presented instructions and delightful stories.

A happily misanthropic Middle East divorcee finds refuge in books in a “beautiful and absorbing” novel of late-life crisis (The New York Times). Aaliya is a divorced, childless, and reclusively cranky translator in Beirut nurturing doubts about her latest project: a 900-page avant-garde, linguistically serpentine historiography by a late Chilean existentialist. Honestly, at seventy-two, should she be taking on such a project? Not that Aailiya fears dying. Women in her family live long; her mother is still going crazy. But on this lonely day, hour-by-hour, Aaliya’s musings on literature, philosophy, her career, and her aging body, are suddenly invaded by memories of her volatile past. As she tries in vain to ward off these emotional upwellings, Aaliya is faced with an unthinkable disaster that threatens to shatter the little life she has left. In this “meditation on, among other things, aging, politics, literature, loneliness, grief and resilience” (The New York Times), Alameddine conjures “a beguiling narrator . . . who is, like her city, hard to read, hard to take, hard to know and, ultimately, passionately complex” (San Francisco Chronicle). A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award, An Unnecessary Woman is “a fun, and often funny . . . grave, powerful . . . [and] extraordinary” Washington Independent Review of Books) ode to literature and its power to define who we are. “Read it once, read it twice, read other books for a decade or so, and then pick it up and read it anew. This one’s a keeper” (The Independent)

This revised edition of the number-one bestseller and winner of the 1989 National Book Award includes the Pulitzer Prize-winning author's new, updated epilogue. One of the most thought-provoking books ever written about the Middle East, From Beirut to Jerusalem remains vital to our understanding of this complex and volatile region of the world. Three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman drew upon his ten years of experience reporting from Lebanon and Israel to write this now-classic work of journalism. In a new afterword, he updates his journey with a fresh discussion of the Arab Awakenings and how they are transforming the area, and a new look at relations between Israelis and Palestinians, and Israelis and Israelis. Rich with anecdote, history, analysis, and autobiography, From Beirut to Jerusalem will continue to shape how we see the Middle East for many years to come. "If you're only going to read one book on the Middle East, this is it."--Seymour M. Hersh

The book explores the affairs of Mount Lebanon and its surrounds through fourteen centuries, beginning with the emergence of its Christian, Muslim and Islamic-derived communities between the sixth and eleventh centuries. Against this backdrop, it interprets the modern republic of Lebanon from Ottoman antecedents to present day crises.

An introduction to the the peoples of Western Asia details each country's ancient and modern history, languages, religions, peoples, foods, industries, arts and crafts, sports, and holidays.