A powerful and insightful narrative of a journey – once violently interrupted and here resumed – through one of the most compelling regions on earth.
From Aqaba to Jerusalem and on into Palestine, veteran commentator on the Middle East, Charles Glass writes a thoughtful, inquisitive and dispassionate book on the politics and peoples of the region. He has traversed the Jordanian desert to the Iraqi border with Bedouin guides, explored modern Israel and revisited the scene of his captivity, confronting the men who kidnapped him.
Written with elegance, flair and a wonderfully acute eye for the idiosyncrasies of the places through which he passes, this is a travel book full of enemies and friends both old and new: Arabs and Jews, soldiers and shopkeepers, Syrians and Israelis, the cowed and the vengeful, affording us an unprecedented and intimate portrait of these bruised and troubled lands.
Reviews
‘Fascinating…intriguing…Glass is skilled at bringing people alive…an important book.’ Sunday Times
‘Charles Glass reads like Taki with an explosives belt. Yet this attention to social form becomes a strength when it shows how a generation of insult by both British and Israeli occupiers has brought a traditional Arab society to the end of its tether…Even the ruling passions of Glass’s life and writing, which are good food and pretty women, contribute balance to the book.’ Spectator
‘He writes stylishly…the most absorbing passages in the book trace Glass's progress through Israel and the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza…Glass enlivens his text with some intriguing asides.’ Daily Mail
‘Anyone who is interested in the continuing agony of the Middle East should read this book.’ Literary Review
‘An eloquent and sensitive journey…with trademark flowing style and laconic humour.’ Oldie
About the author
Former ABC News Chief Charles Glass has lived in Beirut for six years and covered the Middle East as a journalist for twenty-five years. In 1987, while writing his book ‘Tribes with Flags’, Hizbullah kidnapped him in Lebanon and held him until he escaped two months later. He is also the author of ‘Money for Old Rope’. He writes regularly for the London Review of Books and the Independent.
