Memoir Middle East

This riveting memoir follows a Lebanese Muslim American and 30-year US Marine veteran who suffered a six-month ordeal at the hands of a brutal regime in Yemen - and remained loyal to his country through it all.

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.

Benjamin Netanyahu is one of the longest serving Prime Ministers of Israel. For much of the world, Netanyahu is a right-wing nationalist zealot; for many Israelis he is a centrist who is too soft on Arabs and backs down too easily in a fight. Love him or loathe him, Netanyahu has been at the very centre of Arab-Israeli politics since 1990, when he became the telegenic Israeli spokesman for CNN's coverage of the Persian Gulf War, arguably ushering in the Americanization of the Israeli media.

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.

The key to understanding the calamitous Afghan war is the complex, ultimately failed relationship between the powerful, duplicitous Karzai family and the United States, brilliantly portrayed here by the former Kabul bureau chief for The Washington Post.

And the Rest Is History takes listeners on a traveling circus from Paris to Beirut, Baghdad, and beyond, introducing them to spies and terrorists, arms dealers and crooks, and along the way reveals a few surprises about the secret underbelly of recent history you won’t find in WikiLeaks. This book pinpoints precisely when the era of “fake news” actually began in America, and will change the way you think about journalism and journalists.

Ten years after an attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, cries of "Benghazi!" still echo across America. But instead of a landmark event to be taken seriously, it has become a punchline, an empty word, or a code for controversy and political theatre. In this thrilling retelling, Ethan Chorin reveals Benghazi as a watershed moment in American history, one that helped create the world America lives in today: polarized, fearful, and dangerously unstable.

A well-known novelist and journalist from the coastal city of Jableh, Samar Yazbek witnessed the beginning four months of the Syrian uprising first-hand and actively participated in a variety of public actions and budding social movements. With rare empathy and journalistic prowess Samar Yazbek compiled oral testimonies from ordinary Syrians all over the country. Filled with snapshots of exhilarating hope and horrifying atrocities, she offers us a wholly unique perspective on the Syrian uprising.

Surge is an insider's view of the most decisive phase of the Iraq War. Using newly declassified documents, unpublished manuscripts, interviews, author notes, and published sources, Surge explains how President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Ambassador Crocker, General Petraeus, and other U.S. and Iraqi political and military leaders shaped the surge from the center of the maelstrom in Baghdad and Washington.

In many ways, Ebrahim Raisi epitomizes the religious fascism ruling Iran; a tyrannical regime that for more than four decades has inflicted immense suffering and pain on the Iranian people, the region, and many other countries, using the two instruments of domestic repression and export of terrorism and deadly conflicts abroad. This book may help introduce Ebrahim Raisi and explain the significant moment that his rise to the presidency of Iran represents.

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.

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.

Father of Lions is the powerful true story of the evacuation of the Mosul Zoo, featuring Abu Laith the zookeeper, Simba the lion cub, Lula the bear, and countless others, faithfully depicted by acclaimed, award-winning journalist Louise Callaghan in her trade publishing debut. Combining a true-to-life narrative of humanity in the wake of war with the heartstring-tugging account of rescued animals, Father of Lions will appeal to audiences of best sellers like The Zookeeper’s Wife and The Bookseller of Kabul as well as fans of true animal stories.

The Jihadi Next Door provides unprecedented information that can be used to actually combat terrorism. By laying bare the tactics used by ISIS to deceive and exploit new recruits and exposing the veneer these extremists operate under, Dr. Mehlman-Orozco hopes to empower listeners with the knowledge needed to prevent future recruitment and thereby preventing acts of terrorism.

The symbol of the Jewish State was the noble pioneer draining the swamps and making the deserts bloom: the legendary kibbutznik. So what ever happened to the pioneers’ dream of founding a socialist utopia in the land called Palestine? Chasing Utopia: The Future of the Kibbutz in a Divided Israel draws listeners into the quest for answers to the defining political conflict of our era. Acclaimed author David Leach revisits his raucous memories of life as a kibbutz volunteer and returns to meet a new generation of Jewish and Arab citizens struggling to forge a better future together.

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.

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.

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.

Across Cultures and Empires is above all an immigrant's story. Mahir Ibrahimov's fluency in multiple languages offers the perspective of someone who found a way to successfully cross boundaries amid the fall of empire and the resulting cascade of conflicts, even as he provides the listener with insight into an era where mass migration has become a defining dynamic. In the course of telling his personal story and reflecting upon his experiences, Ibrahimov offers clear observations on the deep connections he has made about freedom and America's role in the world.

Lawrence of Arabia is one of the most iconic figures of the First World War, seen by many as a heroic and romantic guerrilla leader in a period of savage and deeply impersonal industrial warfare. While Lawrence himself has been the subject of many biographies and an award-winning film, the context of his war in the desert, and his ideas on war itself, are less well-known. Lawrence of Arabia on War is a study of those ideas and of his campaign of irregular warfare which has informed tactical theory and decision-making down to the present day.