Memoir Middle East

On a cold November day in Amsterdam in 2004, the celebrated and controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot and killed by an Islamic extremist for making a movie that "insulted the prophet Mohammed." The murder sent shock waves across Europe and around the world. Shortly thereafter, Ian Buruma returned to his native land to investigate the event and its larger meaning as part of the great dilemma of our time.

Lucky in Cyprus is a coming-of-age story set in the Middle East during the height of the Cold War. An American teenager - son of a CIA operative - is inspired by grand events and a Greek Cypriot teacher to learn about survival and his art. He witnesses earthquakes and riots and terrorist attacks, but in the end it is his teacher's gentle lessons that keep him whole.

Born in Britain, Saira Shah was inspired by her father's dazzling stories to rediscover the now lost life their forebears knew for 900 years within sight of orchards, snow-topped mountains, and the minarets of Kabul. This is Saira, part sophisticated and sensitive Western liberal, part fearless (even fierce) life-gulping Afghan, falling in love with her ancestral myth, chasing Afghanistan.

The events of the Arab Spring have come to be overshadowed by the civil war in the Arabic-speaking nation of Syria, which has been ruled throughout the 21st century by Bashar al-Assad. Though he had not planned on ruling Syria, several events conspired to make Bashar the successor of his father, Hafez. Though the West frequently looked for signs that Bashar might be a reformer, due in part to his formerly popular Western wife, Assad remained part of a critical alliance with Iran and the sub-state groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Nothing about the romance between Nancy Hatch Dupree and Louis Dupree was what you'd call typical. For starters, there were the lovers themselves. Louis was a foul-mouthed paratrooper turned swashbuckling archaeologist. Nancy was a witty travel writer and the wife of a CIA station chief on the ragged frontier of the Cold War. Then there was the place and time: Kabul, Afghanistan in the 1960s, a heady and short-lived milieu of conniving spies, future mujahideen, and cocktail-swilling cosmopolitans.

For soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division, the road to Baghdad began with a midnight flight out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, in late February 2003. For Rick Atkinson, who would spend nearly two months covering the division for The Washington Post, the war in Iraq provided a unique opportunity to observe today's U.S. Army in combat.

Most Americans think of the Taliban and al Qaeda as a bunch of bearded fanatics fighting an Islamic crusade from caves in Afghanistan. But that doesn't explain their astonishing comeback along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Why is it that eight years after we invaded Afghanistan, the CIA says that these groups are better armed and better funded than ever? Seeds of Terror will reshape the way you think about America's enemies, revealing them less as ideologues and more as criminals.

David Headley, the American Pakistani also known as Daood Gilani, lived a double life. One day he would stroll through Central Park in his tailored Armani suit as a true New Yorker, and the next he would browse in the bazaar in Lahore wearing traditional Pakistani clothes. One day he would drink champagne at the most extravagant clubs; on another he would prostrate himself in prayer in remote Pakistan and pledge fidelity to Allah.

Being inspired to act can take many forms. For some, it's taking a weekend to volunteer, but for Shannon Galpin, it meant leaving her career, selling her house, launching a nonprofit, and committing her life to advancing education and opportunity for women and girls. Focusing on the war-torn country of Afghanistan, Galpin and her organization, Mountain2Mountain, have touched the lives of hundreds of men, women, and children.

August 21, 2013: A chemical weapons attack on the suburbs of Damascus reminds the world of the existence of the Syrian war. Hundreds of journalists from every corner of the world rush to the frontier only to leave disappointed when Obama decides not to bomb. They leave behind 200,000 estimated victims, and more than half of a population of 22 million people dispersed or refugeed in nearby countries: the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII according to the UN.

The "Lackawanna Six" were young men, born of Yemeni families long settled in upstate New York, who took a trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan and spent time in an al-Qaeda training camp long before the specter of 9/11, before most people had even heard of Osama Bin Laden, and before the existence of the Homeland Security Act.

After the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, First Sergeant Daniel Hendrex was dispatched along with his unit, Dragon Company, to Husaybah, a small town bordering Syria in the Sunni-dominated Al Anbar province of Iraq. It was at this checkpoint, amidst relentless attacks, that Daniel and his men found the most effective ally of the war effort in the most unlikely of sources.

Ehud Diskin's mother wanted him to play it safe when he was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces. Instead, he volunteered for one of the IDF's most dangerous assignments in a move that altered the course of his life. In Yes, It's Possible, a compelling new translation of his Hebrew memoir, Diskin recounts his fascinating and tumultuous life story growing up and maturing alongside the State of Israel.

Dodging secret police on the daily, and haggling prices for dried fruit and vintage leathers in heroin-laced bazaars, My Kazakhy is filled with all the gems you wouldn't expect to find from a queer Latino boy serving in the Peace Corps in a third world, Muslim country.

President Carter has been a student of the biblical Holy Land all his life. For the last three decades, as president of the United States and as founder of The Carter Center, he has studied the complex and interrelated issues of the region's conflicts and has been actively involved in reconciling them. He knows the leaders of all factions in the region who will need to play key roles, and he sees encouraging signs among them.

En unik inblick i återtagandet av Mosul från terrorsekten IS en osminkad och detaljrik berättelse om hur ett specialförband opererar i strid, våldsam död, kamratskap i främsta linjen och krigets oskyldiga offer. Svenske elitsoldaten Axel Stål är tillbaka i stridens hetta. Som nybefordrad överstelötjnant i kurdiska säkerhetstjänsten blir hans uppgift att hjälpa till med återtagandet av Mosul från terrorsekten Islamiska Staten. Men trots hans långa karriär som operatör runt om i världens värsta oroshärdar visar sig uppdraget bli långt blodigare och svårare än vad Axel någonsin tidigare varit med om.

En 16-årig Parisoula Lampsos förälskar sig i den nästan dubbelt så gamla Saddam Hussein, mannen som skulle komma att bli Iraks fruktade och hatade diktator. I 33 år behöll han sin makt över henne, för varför skulle en man som inte drog sig för att mörda sin egen familj skona henne? Lena Katarina Swanberg har intervjuat Lampsos under lång tid och skrivit den gripande berättelsen om livet i skuggan av en fruktad diktator. Lena Katarina Swanberg föddes i Stockholm den 8 februari 1947.

Desde 1951 el Mossad, conocido como ‘el Instituto’, se convirtió en uno de los más temibles servicios de espionaje al mando del Estado de Israel. Mitad mito, mitad realidad, el Mossad y sus Katsas supieron salvaguardar ese halo de misterio y secretismo que los convirtió en auténticas leyendas cuando en 1960 una unidad del Metsada secuestró al criminal de guerra Adolf Eichmann en Argentina y, tras trasladarlo clandestinamente a Israel, fue juzgado y ejecutado en la horca.

Skønhedssalonen er kvindernes fristed. Hver dag åbner den dørene for Bagdads kvinder fra velhavende middel- og overklassefamilier, og kvinderne træder ind i omgivelser, hvor det udelukkende handler om dem og deres skønhed. Men virkeligheden udenfor er hele tiden til stede. Både for dem og for de kvinder, der arbejder i salonen, og som aldrig ville have råd til at træde ind ad døren som kunde. Sanne Gram Fadel har mødt kvinderne der, hvor de har et frirum, og de har ladet hende komme med ind i deres liv.

Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts bricht der berühmte Schriftsteller Gustave Flaubert zu einer fast zweijährigen Reise in den Orient auf. In seiner umfangreichen Korrespondenz mit Verwandten und Freunden schildert er regionale Begebenheiten, kulturelle Eindrücke sowie allerhand Erlebnisse und liefert so schmackhafte Anekdoten über seine Zeit und persönliche Einblicke in sein Seelenleben. Der Orient-Briefe erster Teil.