This unique literary collection offers a window on the contemporary Levant, a region comprising most of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Cyprus, parts of southern Turkey and northwestern Iraq, and the Sinai Peninsula. Originally written in Arabic, French, Aramaic, Lebanese, Egyptian, and Hebrew, and reflecting an extraordinary diversity of cultures, faiths, traditions, and languages, the selections in this book also convey a wide range of ideas and perspectives, to offer readers a nuanced understanding of the mosaic that is the contemporary Middle East. Franck Salameh, who compiled this anthology over the course of more than two decades, introduces and annotates each selection for the benefit of the uninitiated reader, offering background on the various peoples and politics of the Levant. In these pages, we discover a Middle East in which, as one writer puts it, "an Armenian and a Turk can still hold hands in the midst of massacres."

SalamehFranck: Franck Salameh is associate professor of Near Eastern studies at Boston College and the author of Language, Memory, and Identity in the Middle East.

No detailed description available for "The Other Middle East".

This original collection of Levantine literature offers a glimpse into a contemporary Middle East that defies common Western misconceptions and prejudices. Compiled over the course of more than two decades by noted scholar Franck Salameh, the featured prose and poetry in translation reveals an extraordinary diversity of ethnicities, religions, languages, and cultures, and a surprising range of sentiments and ideas, that provide Western readers with a powerful new understanding of the rich mosaic that is the contemporary Middle East.