A riveting and revealing tale of an Egypt caught between tradition and modernity, multiculturalism and nationalism, oppression and freedom. Cairo 1925, Haret al-Yahud, the old Jewish Quarter. Esther, a beautiful young woman believed to be possessed by demons, longs to give birth after seven blissful years of marriage. Her husband, blind since childhood, does not object when, in her effort to conceive, she participates in Muslim zar rituals. Zohar, the novel's narrator, comes into the world, but because his mother's breasts are dry, he is nursed by a Muslim peasant-also believed to be possessed-who has just given birth to a girl, Masreya. Suckled at the same breasts and united by a rabbi's amulet, the milk-twins will be consumed by a passionate, earth-shaking love. Part fantastical fable, part realistic history, A Land Like You draws on ethno-psychiatrist Tobie Nathan's deep knowledge of North African folk beliefs to create a glittering tapestry in which spirit possession and religious mysticism exist side by side with sober facts about the British occupation of Egypt and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Free Officers' Movement. Historical figures such as Gamel Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, and King Farouk mingle with Nathan's fictional characters in this engaging story.

A riveting and revealing tale of an Egypt caught between tradition and modernity, multiculturalism and nationalism, oppression and freedom. Cairo 1925, Haret al-Yahud, the old Jewish Quarter. Esther, a beautiful young woman believed to be possessed by demons, longs to give birth after seven blissful years of marriage. Her husband, blind since childhood, does not object when, in her effort to conceive, she participates in Muslim zar rituals. Zohar, the novel’s narrator, comes into the world, but because his mother’s breasts are dry, he is nursed by a Muslim peasant—also believed to be possessed—who has just given birth to a girl, Masreya. Suckled at the same breasts and united by a rabbi’s amulet, the milk-twins will be consumed by a passionate, earth-shaking love.    Part fantastical fable, part realistic history, A Land Like You draws on ethno-psychiatrist Tobie Nathan’s deep knowledge of North African folk beliefs to create a glittering tapestry in which spirit possession and religious mysticism exist side by side with sober facts about the British occupation of Egypt and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Free Officers’ Movement. Historical figures such as Gamel Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, and King Farouk mingle with Nathan’s fictional characters in this engaging story.  

A classic of modern Provencal literature, Jouse d'Arbaud's 1926 masterpiece The Beast of VacarEs (sometimes titled The Beast of VaccarEs, based on the French spelling) is a haunting parable about one man's heartbreaking encounter with a dying demi-god. Set during the fifteenth century, the tale is narrated by a solitary bull-herder - known as a gardian - who stumbles upon a starving creature that is half-man, half-goat. Terrified that he has met a devil or that his eyes are deceiving him, the gardian is nonetheless drawn to the eloquent Beast, who laments the loss of his glorious past even as he wields power over the animals around him. Torn between pity and fear, unable to understand his experiences and afraid he will be condemned for heresy, the gardian records his encounters in a journal, hoping that one day readers will make sense of what he cannot. Set in the vast, lonely landscape of the Camargue delta, where the RhOne meets the Mediterranean, The Beast seamlessly melds fantasy with realistic detail about the region's flora and fauna. Three additional stories - The Caraco, PEire Guilhem's Remorse, and The Longline explore the lives of twentieth-century gardians in the region. Each man succumbs to fears and social pressure, tragically losing what he most loves. The Beast should appeal to general readers as well as to those specifically interested in modern ProvenCal literature, nature writing, environmentalism, and the fate of pagan classical gods in the modern era.