Named as one of the New York Times Year's Ten Best upon its publication, Gary Shteyngart's Absurdistan is a biting, poignant satire of American-style democracy and the American Dream. After returning to Russia to attend his father's funeral, 30-year-old Misha is subsequently denied a visa when he attempts to re-enter the United States. What follows is a series of misadventures through the Eastern Bloc in which Misha runs afoul of crooked politicians,...

"Ramadan Ramsey is the improbable love story between Alicia Ramsey, a ninth generation New Orleans African American, and Mustafah Tota, a Syrian refugee in the city's Ninth Ward. Through a series of familial betrayals, Mustafah returns to Syria unaware that Alicia is carrying his child. When the baby is born, Alicia names their son Ramadan and raises him with the help of her mother, Mama Joon. But tragedy strikes when Hurricane Katrina barrels into...

Stationed in Cairo in 1916, Lawrence languished in the mapmaking department of British Intelligence until he was asked to find and gather information on Prince Feisal, leader of the Arab Allied forces in World War I. Lawrence of Arabia chronicles his desert journey inspired by his first military success when he led a small contingent of Arabs against the Turkish stronghold of Aqaba.

Assigned to protect a seemingly safe U.S. embassy in the Middle East, elite Marine Corporal Evan Albright thought he wasn't going to see much action. But when a hostile, extreme militant group launches a surprise attack aimed at killing an embassy informant, Albright's team is caught off guard. Outgunned and outnumbered, Albright's routine assignment escalates into an all-out war.

"This gorgeous, haunting saga tells the story of modern Turkey and its diverse communities through the life of a gravestone maker. In the city of Mardin, near Turkey's border with Syria, the orphaned Avdo finds purpose when an old mason takes him on as anapprentice. From Master Josef, he learns the importance of their art, which looks after the dead and bears witness to their lives. Avdo then travels the country and meets a woman he loves wholeheartedly,...

Actress Behnaz Jafari is distraught when she comes across a young girl's video plea for help after her family prevents her from taking up her studies at the Tehran drama conservatory. Behnaz abandons her shoot and turns to filmmaker Jafar Panahi to help with the young girl's troubles. They travel by car to the rural Northwest, where they have encounters with the charming and generous folk of the girl's mountain village. But Behnaz and Jafar also discover...

Zulaikha, a thirteen-year-old girl in Afghanistan, faces a series of frightening but exhilirating changes in her life as she defies her father and secretly meets with an old woman who teaches her to read, her older sister gets married, and American troops offer her surgery to fix her disfiguring cleft lip.

Mencutekin takes on the role of ideology in the history of Turkish cinema critically analyzing the values and ideas that have shaped the message and stories of Turkish movies. This study is based on the thesis that to truly explore the specific issues currently vexing Turkish cinema, one has to confront the aesthetic, technological, and ideological assumptions in the deeply nationalistic and secular approach to Turkish cinema and how they engage...

A true story of a trailblazing woman who found freedom in the faraway world of the Middle East. Gertrude Bell chafes against the stifling rigidity of life in turn-of-the-century England, leaving it behind for a chance to travel to Tehran. So begins her lifelong adventure across the Arab world, a journey marked by danger, a passionate affair with a British officer, and an encounter with the legendary T.E. Lawrence.

Due to the enormous-and ever-growing-interest in Palestinian plays around the world, Inside/Outside brings together six dynamic Palestinian playwrights from both Occupied Palestine and the Diaspora, making it the very first collection of its kind. These plays take on Palestinian history and culture with irreverence, humor, and, above all, an electrifying creativity. This anthology will be a vital contribution to world theater, introducing six political,...