This spellbinding novel narrates the many-layered recollections of a hallucinating man in devastated Beirut. The desolate, almost surreal, urban landscape is enriched by the unfolding of the family sagas of Niqula Mitri and his beloved Shamsa, the Kurdish maid. Mitri reminisces about his Egyptian mother and his father who came back to settle in Beirut after a long stay in Egypt. Both Mitri and his father are textile merchants and see the world through the code of cloth, from the intimacy of linen, velvet, and silk to the most impersonal of synthetics. Shamsa in turn relates her story, the myriad adventures of her parents and grandparents who moved from Iraqi Kurdistan to Beirut. Haunting scenes of pastoral Kurds are juxtaposed against the sedentary decadence of metropolitan residents. Barakat weaves into her sophisticated narrative shreds of scientific discourse about herbal plants and textile crafts, customs and manners of Arabs, Armenians, and Kurds, mythological figures from ancient Greece, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, and Arabia, the theosophy of the African Dogons and the medieval Byzantines, and historical accounts of the Crusades in the Holy Land and the silk route to China.

Disciples of Passion chronicles the civil war in Lebanon through the troubled and sometimes quasi-hallucinatory mind of a young man who has experienced kidnapping, hostage exchange, and hospital internment. As he recalls his village childhood and recounts his relationship with a woman of a different faith , his fragmented narrative probes the uncertainties of political testimonial and ascriptions of responsibility in wartime. Marilyn Booth's fluid translation brings to an English audience one of the Arabic language's finest contemporary novelists. Widely celebrated in France, where she currently lives in exile (from Lebanon), Hoda Barakat writes from personal experience: her novels focus on the civil war in Lebanon and how it shaped the lives of people marginalized by the conflict. Compelling scenarios of war and its aftermath of suffering and destruction are integrated into subtle psychological portraitswith protagonists often propelled into unexpected action.

"Six strangers. Six letters. A chain of dark confessions, none of which reaches the intended recipient. Over the course of one hundred profound and disturbing pages, The Night Post tells the story of characters living on the periphery, battling with devastating poverty, fighting their own demons. Set in an unnamed country torn apart by war, the six characters at the heart of this tale are compelled to share their most personal secrets. This outstanding novella addresses some of the defining issues of our age: migration, conflict and exploitation. From one of today's most talented Arabic writers, The Night Post forces the reader to ask whether, in an oppressively connected world, we are drifting ever further apart."--Provided by publisher.

Cape Hatteras, off the North Carolina coast, is known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. Salvage diver Tiller Galloway discovers that his search for a wrecked boat may get him killed when a treacherous secret resurfaces. "Highly authentic thriller that crackles with energy. . . ".--Greg Dinallo, author of Purpose of Evasion. Martin's.

Depth: 105...Wriggling like an eel, he forced himself up into the narrow gap he'd created...Rocks scraped and clattered away. A hint of doubt-- Should I be doing this?-- was answered by the calm comfort that pervaded his mind now. Nothing was going to happen...Everything was going to be all right... Welcome to the most dangerous sport on Earth: where cave divers step into murky Florida ponds and end up hundreds of feet beneath the ground, slinking through Swiss-cheese-like rock formations, past strange underground creatures, heading down tunnels that may open into caverns, or lead nowhere at all. Open-water diver and ex-Navy SEAL Tiller Galloway has come to this watery underworld to find out why an old friend died young-- and take one last shot at being a father, a lover, and a friend. But with a woman who is opening up her heart, and a conspiracy closing in around him, Galloway must navigate between lies told aboveground and truths hidden in the depths-- where a violent battle is about to explode... Combining the knife-edged action of Clive Cussler with the heartstopping storytelling power of John D. MacDonald, David Poyer stakes his claim as one of America's most remarkable thriller writers-- and a master of underwater suspense.

Science fiction. Space hero Horn battles shapeshifting vampires who want to use humans as cattle. It happens on planet Blue where Horn is searching for the planet's missing leader. First volume in a trilogy

The most fascinating episode in American history, the Civil War has also inspired some of its greatest fiction, from The Red Badge of Courage to Cold Mountain.