[escenic_image id="55132106"] An Iraq of Its Regions: Cornerstones of a Federal Democracy?  Reidar Visser and Gareth Stansfield C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd 2007 Stansfield and Visser’s…

[escenic_image id="55129184"] Despite its reputation as a world-class destination for culture, Beirut’s art scene has been hindered by sociopolitical factors since the mid 1970s—as the onset of the…

[escenic_image id="55112119"] Far Horizons Frank Gardner £18.99 Hard Cover Reading Gardner’s book on a summer’s afternoon in London transported me to exotic destinations far from the capital’s…

[escenic_image id="55111049"]Dariush Borbor is an architect, urban planner and researcher based in Tehran. Educated in the United Kingdom and Switzerland, he has made significant architectural…

[escenic_image id="55101553"]Marjane Satrapi has been publishing graphic novels since the beginning of the new millennium. But it wasn’t until the 2007 Cannes Film Festival that the Paris-based…

[escenic_image id="55100877"] In Jail with Nazim Hikmet Orhan Kemal Saqi Books 2010 £10.99 “Your master’s coming.” “No,” Orhan said, “I don’t have a master—or anyone of the kind.” “Look at…

[escenic_image id="5595939"] Over the past five years the world has begun looking to the Middle East for contemporary art. The considerable rise in official arts funding and the competitive building…

[escenic_image id="5592822"] The Time that Remains: Chronicle of A Present Absentee tells the life story of Elia Suleiman, beginning with his father Fuad’s violent resistance to the founding of…

The Arabs: A HistoryEugene RoganAllen Lane 2009£23.00In 2005, Lebanese journalist Samir Kassir wrote “Its not pleasant being Arab these days … Feelings of persecution for some, self hatred for others…

[escenic_image id="5587184"] Eclipse of the Sunnis By Deborah Amos Public Affairs, 2010 Hardback £10.50 Sectarianism remains the key issue in Iraqi politics. Post invasion efforts to create a…