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ABRAHAM'S OTHER CHILDREN: THE ARABS

Name: ABRAHAM'S OTHER CHILDREN: THE ARABS
Author: Heidi Tawfik
ISBN: 978-0-9629455-1-9

A HISTORICAL FICTION

by Heidi Tawfik ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A comprehensive but dramatically flat retelling of Arab history from a Muslim perspective.

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Tawfik (Saudi Arabia: A Personal Experience, 1991) tells the story of the Arab people up to the time of Muhammad in this historical novel.

In 1800 BCE, in the city of Ur, Nahor—a member of a group of traders known as the Hebrews—hears that his son, Azar, has a new child, so he goes to visit him. Azar wants to name the baby Nahor, after his own father, but the elder man recommends a different name: “This boy should be called Abraham, a name that means ‘father of nations’. I have seen signs and believe he will be a great man.” As an adult, Abraham learns from the angel Gabriel about the true God, called “Al-ILah.” Gabriel also tells Abraham that his son Ismael must be taken to the city of Beca (later known as Mecca), where he’ll rebuild a house for God that was destroyed by the great flood. This house, the Kaaba, is the center of Arab worship for centuries. It’s not until a later prophet, Mohamed, comes along, though, that the original faith of Abraham and Ismael is restored. The novel is divided into three sections: the first deals with the founding of Mecca and the interactions between the Arabs and their Middle Eastern neighbors; the second chronicles the “Age of Ignorance” and further international relations; and the final section describes the rise of Mohamed. Tawfik’s prose is simple and largely unadorned: “Preparation to build Allah’s house and the sanctuary began in earnest. Abraham was a rich man and able to pay the cost of this large undertaking.” Overall, the book reads less like a novel than it does a historical summary with some light dramatization. As a result, much of the text is devoted to exposition, and people come and go quickly, not allowing much time for character development. Readers interested in Arab folk history will find Tawfik’s book a fairly concise synthesis of various sources and traditions. However, she doesn’t add enough elements or complicate the story enough to make it a truly compelling work of fiction.

A comprehensive but dramatically flat retelling of Arab history from a Muslim perspective.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 978-0-9629455-1-9

Page Count: 344

Publisher: Windmill Publishing Company

Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2018

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.

Pub Date: July 11, 1960

ISBN: 0060935464

Page Count: 323

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.