{"product_id":"9781566560306","title":"The American Quarter","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eThe American Quarter\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Jabbour Douaihy\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA love letter to a city of his childhood, Jabbour Douaihy’s The American Quarter is set in a small neighborhood in Tripoli, the ancient port on the northern coast of Lebanon. Unfolding at the height of the US-led invasion of Iraq, it revolves around the radicalization of an ordinary youth named Ismail. But Ismail’s story is part of a larger portrait of those nearest to him: the young disabled brother he looks out for; his father Bilal, a massacre survivor; Intisar, his spirited, indulgent mother, a maid like her mother before her in the wealthy, powerful Azzam household; Abdelkarim, the Azzam family’s only son, addicted to poetry and opera, and pining for his lost Polish ballerina?all sharply depicted by Douaihy with irony and affection. As well, Ismail’s fate is entwined with the disappointments and meager prospects of those around him in the deteriorating American Quarter, and others forced to crisscross the surrounding conflict-scarred lands. Somehow Ismail’s reckoning with his assigned mission comes to reflect our own struggles—for redemption, for faith in life in the face of destructive forces that can erase in an instant what is dear to us. A classic tale for our time, in a lucid translation by Paula Haydar, The American Quarter is a compassionate work of great beauty. Paying homage to the persistent presence of a beloved old city and her people, it bolsters us with a gifted writer’s long view of the threats to trust and tolerance we now face.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\"This novel is Douaihy's most accomplished, subtle, and captivating.\"\u003cbr\u003eThe Lebanese author Jabbour Douaihy, professor of French literature at the University of Tripoli, immerses his reader in this city, especially in its American neighborhood, among the poorest, which he describes accurately. He explores everyday life, from the souk's stalls, to the cries of the vegetable vendors, these 'peasants who smell of damp earth in winter,' as well as the old sheikh, the soap and fish merchants, the baker who makes cheese galettes that one can eat standing up, 'against the wall, facing the colorful list of the names of the Prophet's'\u003cbr\u003eThe work of a remarkable writer...imbued with intelligence and humanity...deep empathy with those he writes about...Not only does Douaihy love his city, but...its people...His heroes, ordinary people, struggle in the middle of a story that extends beyond them, in search of a sense of dignity...\u003cbr\u003eA novel the power of which many documentarians would envy...\u003cbr\u003eDouaihy's writing is of extreme beauty, concise but full of life...with the fate of its characters intersecting and intertwining...'Transforming the mediocrity of everyday life' says Douaihy, 'is the miracle that writing can accomplish.' When it comes to The American Quarter, the miracle truly occurs'\u003cbr\u003eWith his masterly narrative skills, the author tells the story of Tripoli with great art, through a travel in time taking the reader back to the early twentieth century. Douaihy's characters are created in the city's spirit and its words, thereby creating the space where the story unfolds... This is the art of details, par excellence; details that Douaihy perfectly possesses, and with which he weaves a precise panoramic picture of the city of Tripoli.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9781566560306\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Interlink Books","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40591066529998,"sku":"9781566560306","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/O_b37ec538-dded-487c-b1f7-cbcf9cfd8371.jpg?v=1646602488","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9781566560306","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}