Books
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TAYEB SALIH: ARABS IN TRANSLATION
My first job out of college was working at the television station in Qatar, and one of the first things my co-worders told me was “Tayeb Salih used to run this place.” There was a reverence in their voices that I didn’t get because I will admit I had never heard of him. But I Continue reading
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BEIRUT: CATS INSTEAD OF GUNS
When I used to look out at the Corniche from our apartment in Beirut in the 1980s, I’d see a lot of guns, partly because a makeshift military post had sprung up one night in the field in front of us, and partly because there was a war. People still found away to walk the Continue reading
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NOT ALL GULF COUNTRIES FEEL THE SAME WAY ABOUT MICHAEL JACKSON
As I got into my first taxi in Bahrain last weekend, the taxi driver shocked me: He was Bahraini. He dressed and looked like someone from the UAE, but he was most definitely not Emirati. Emiratis may live just down the Gulf from Bahrain, but they do not drive cabs. Heck, they barely ride in Continue reading
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THE NIGHT COUNTER’S MIDDLE EAST TOUR BEGINS
Six weeks after finishing the initial U.S. tour, The Night Counter and I are going to do a little tour of the Middle East. Started out easy last night at the American Women’s Network in Abu Dhabi, where, thanks to my friend Annette, many of the women had already read it and were fans. Next Continue reading
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THE MIDLE EAST FILM FESTIVAL: LEBANON AND SOME SHORTS
When I was a child, I remember my grandmother complaining to my mother about the war having ruined her fashion sense. My mother’s response was “Which war?” At that point both had lived through so many wars, as had the other people of the Arab countries of the Mediterrean, from North Africa and Egypt to Continue reading
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Fatima’s Fig Tree
One of the last things I did before leaving Jordan this week was to go into the backyard of my family’s home to see if another fig was ready for the picking. It’s also the first thing I’d done when I arrived there, upon my mother’s insistence. We’re a family that gets pretty excited about Continue reading
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Jordan’s National Dish: Mansaf
It’s Friday in Jordan. Family get together day. Mansaf day. The first time I went to Jordan, my uncle took me to Jabri. “This is the only decent restaurant in town,” he said. “Order the mansaf.” I did and found myself faced with an almost intimidating amount of rice generously topped with lamb shanks simmered Continue reading
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The Sacremento Book Review & The Night Counter
http://sacramentobookreview.com/modern_literature/the-night-counter/ The Night Counter Posted by Editor at 8 September, 2009, 9:25 am By Alia Yunis Shaye Areheart Books, $23.00, 365 pages When the immortal storyteller Scheherazade gives Fatima Abdullah 1,001 nights to tell the great stories of her life, Fatima begins to prepare for her death. Between getting her affairs in order, Fatima spends Continue reading
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The Boston Globe Review
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2009/08/09/in_dunants_sacred_hearts_a_story_of_thwarted_love_and_church_intrigue/ “In Alia Yunis’s poignant, hilarious first novel, “The Night Counter,’’ purple-haired, 85-year-old Fatimah Abdulla tells her life story to Scheherazade, the legendary storyteller from “The Arabian Nights,’’ who appears every night in the elderly woman’s Los Angeles bedroom. Fatimah has plenty of stories. She came to Detroit from Lebanon as a teenage bride, had Continue reading
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One Hundred Years Twenty Years Later
During my tour of The Night Counter, I was often asked either “What writers have influenced you the most?’ or “Who are you favorite writers?” I have no answer for the first because to say Gabriel Garcia Marquez influenced me is to say that I’ve made some conscious choice to use his style or tone Continue reading
Alia Yunis 