Now in paperback, The Crime of Jean Genet is a powerful personal account of the influence of one writer on another and one of the most penetrating explorations yet of Genet's work and achievement. Dominique Edde met novelist and playwright Jean Genet in the 1970s. And she never forgot him. "His presence," she writes, "gave me the sensation of icy fire. Like his words, his gestures were full, calculated, and precise. . . . Genet's movements mimicked the movement of time, accumulating rather than passing." This book is Edde's account of that meeting and its ripples through her years of engaging with Genet's life and work. Rooted in personal reminiscences, it is nonetheless much broader, offering a subtle analysis of Genet's work and teasing out largely unconsidered themes, like the absence of the father, which becomes a metaphor for Genet's perpetual attack on the law. Tying Genet to Dostoevsky through their shared fascination with crime, Edde helps us more clearly understand Genet's relationship to France and Palestine, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the theater, and even death. A powerful personal account of the influence of one writer on another, The Crime of Jean Genet is also one of the most penetrating explorations yet of Genet's work and achievement.

Dominique Edde's gripping novel tells the story of the doomed Jann family as they plot against one another for revenge and power. Kamal Jann, a successful lawyer in New York City, has a troubled past unseen to most. When he was a boy in Syria, his uncle, the head of the Syrian CIA, had his parents killed, leaving Kamal orphaned at the age of twelve. In a twisted attempt for forgiveness, and as insurance against retaliation, Kamal's uncle paid for his education, leading to his eventual success. Now living in Manhattan, Kamal receives news that his uncle is planning a terrorist attack on Paris and has recruited Kamal's jihadist brother to carry it out. To save his brother, and ultimately avenge his parent's murder, Kamal enters into a dangerous pact with his uncle. Calm, reserved, and even charming on the surface, Kamal hides a vein of madness that will stop at nothing to bring down his uncle and the Syrian regime. Alliances, damaged lives, impossible loves, and deep betrayals unfold as family relationships erode, echoing the conflicts that tear apart the countries around them in the Middle East. Cousins are at odds; women and daughters are playing their own dark games; and the fortune-teller, La Bardolina, has dangerous motives. Expertly translated by award-winning translator Ros Schwartz, and rendered in a voice that is raw, powerful, and rich in imagery, Kamal Jann has been hailed by the French critics as both universal and prophetic, a novel that is vital to our understanding of Syria and the Middle East.

Now in paperback, The Crime of Jean Genet is a powerful personal account of the influence of one writer on another and one of the most penetrating explorations yet of Genet's work and achievement. Dominique Edde met novelist and playwright Jean Genet in the 1970s. And she never forgot him. "His presence," she writes, "gave me the sensation of icy fire. Like his words, his gestures were full, calculated, and precise. . . . Genet's movements mimicked the movement of time, accumulating rather than passing." This book is Edde's account of that meeting and its ripples through her years of engaging with Genet's life and work. Rooted in personal reminiscences, it is nonetheless much broader, offering a subtle analysis of Genet's work and teasing out largely unconsidered themes, like the absence of the father, which becomes a metaphor for Genet's perpetual attack on the law. Tying Genet to Dostoevsky through their shared fascination with crime, Edde helps us more clearly understand Genet's relationship to France and Palestine, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the theater, and even death. A powerful personal account of the influence of one writer on another, The Crime of Jean Genet is also one of the most penetrating explorations yet of Genet's work and achievement.

Rich and multilayered, with elements of both memoir and fiction, Dominique Edde's Kite defies categorization. Beginning in the 1960s and ending in the late '80s, it is at once a narrative of a passionate, and ultimately tragic, relationship between Mali and Farid and the simultaneous decline of Egyptian-Lebanese society. Densely populated with myriad characters, Kite chronicles the casualties of social conventions, religious divisions and cultural cliches. The differences between East and West are central to the tension of Edde's book and share the responsibility for an unavoidable impasse between the lovers. This fragmented narrative--written in several voices that reflect the fragmented lives of those caught up in the madness of war--calls into question an entire way of living and thinking. In lyrical, elegant, original, and often startling prose, Edde weaves together multiple strands--meditating on the nature of language, investigating the concept of the novel, and powerfully depicting the experience of being blind. Deftly evoking the intellectual scene of Beirut in the '60s, Lebanon's mountainscapes, and the urban settings of Cairo, Paris, and London, Kite probes memory with a curious mix of irony and melancholy, ending up in a place beyond hope and despair.

In this personal portrait of Edward Said written by a close friend, Dominique Edde offers a fascinating and fresh presentation of his oeuvre from his earliest writings on Joseph Conrad to his most famous texts, Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism. Edde weaves together accounts of the genesis and content of Said's work, his intellectual development, and her own reflections and personal recollections of their friendship, which began in 1979 and lasted until Said's death in 2003. Throughout, she traces the connection between personal history and theoretical options, illuminating the evolution of Said's thought. Both specialists of Said's work and newcomers will find much to learn in this rich portrait of one of the twentieth century's most important intellectuals.

Rich and multilayered, with elements of both memoir and fiction, Dominique Edde's "Kite" defies categorization. Beginning in the 1960s and ending in the late '80s, it is the narrative of a passionate, and ultimately tragic, relationship between Mali and Farid set against the simultaneous decline of Egyptian-Lebanese society. Densely populated with myriad characters, "Kite" chronicles the casualties of social conventions, religious divisions, and cultural cliches. The differences between East and West are central to the tension of Edde's book and share the responsibility for an unavoidable impasse between the lovers. This fragmented narrative - written in several voices that reflect the broken lives of those caught up in the madness of war - calls into question an entire way of living and thinking. In lyrical, elegant, original, and often startling prose, Edde weaves together multiple strands - meditating on the nature of language, investigating the concept of the novel, and powerfully depicting the experience of being blind. Deftly evoking the intellectual scene of Beirut in the '60s, Lebanon's mountainscapes, and the urban settings of Cairo, Paris, and London, "Kite" probes memory with a curious mix of irony and melancholy, ending up in a place beyond hope and despair.