Edited by Roseanne Saad Khalaf

This anthology of Lebanese women fiction writers offers a captivating mix of stories by published authors with established reputations, such as Emily Nasrallah, Hanan Sheikh and Alaweeya Sobh, alongside the narratives of younger women whose voices explore new terrain. Although each of the contributors differ in personality, style and creative purpose, tackling subjects from the crippling effects of the civil war in past decades, through longing for romantic adventures in a conservative society, to the functioning of families across the divides of emigration and generational conflict.

When viewed together these voices reflect the rich diversity of the complex multi-cultural society out of which they emerged.

'Hikayat has established authors, promising newcomers and oodles of attitude. ... The book spans the breach between urban and rural, young and old, provincial and cosmopolitan, rich and poor, anglophone and francophone, rebellious sex bomb and too-chaste-to-be-believed, gay and straight, traditional and modern, home and exile.'

Daily Star, Lebanon

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Last modified on October 30, 2006  | © Telegram 2005