'Kamyonistan is not just a place... It's a magical oasis we've constructed in our minds.' In the desert near Damascus, Kamyonistan is a truck stop where trade routes, cultures and travellers connect and collide. From this outpost arises a nascent community, which faces threats from fundamentalism, Israeli missiles, gunrunning and even an earthquake. And yet, for its inhabitants, Kamyonistan becomes an earthly paradise - a place that needs to be protected, where identities can be carved and, most importantly, a place to call home. This quartet edition contains all four novels of Robert Hackford's finely drawn Kamyonistan series: Kamyonistan, Kamyonistan Revisited, Kamyonistan Revealed and Kamyonistan Reflected.

As Ro and Nuri pursue their quest for an Islamic booklet that supports ijtihad, or a revision of strict Muslim laws and codes of conduct, we follow them to Cairo, Aswan, Aqaba, Petra, and finally back to Kamyonistan near Damascus. This is the truck stop community that is their true home - their jannat al-ardh or earthly paradise. But the relationship between Ro, the English teenager, and his young Arab friend, Nuri, is not unnoticed by a fundamentalist spy. Having shaken off the two-faced Omar, Ro comes face to face with twin tragedies, first when Kamyonistan is rocked by an earth tremor, and secondly when a thoroughbred white camel arrives, heralding a sadness that goes far deeper for Ro and his friends.

'Kamyonistan is not just a place... It's a magical oasis we've constructed in our minds.' Bingo is right. The truck stop near Damascus is an oasis - a paradise, even - currently recovering from the harsh reality of an Israeli missile attack. For the English teenager Ro and his Egyptian-born friend Nuri, it represents security, better employment prospects and a tolerance of their unusual lifestyle. The arrival of a majestic camel and her baby offspring presents a different kind of challenge. When unmarked containers also arrive at Kamyonistan in the depths of a severe winter, and Ro sees rifles being secretly offloaded by night, it's Nuri's cameleer skills that are needed - for gunrunning across the mountains into the hot spot next door: Lebanon. Trouble in paradise is the theme of this finely drawn study of the Middle East, where ways meet and customs frequently collide. Humorous cross-cultural banter and excellent images of life in the rough lane remain imprinted in our minds long after we have enjoyed author Robert Hackford's third visit to his other 'home' - Kamyonistan.

Kamyonistan has finally arrived. The truck stop in the desert near Damascus has witnessed its first birth a surprise to all concerned and is therefore a community. It s also a place in our heads as one truck driver, Bingo, says, as well as being an oasis of rest and entertainment for travellers from all corners of the world and a target for Israeli missiles. Suddenly, Kamyonistan is threatened. The honest drivers move on and the gangs move in. A British Muslim stows away to commit an act of terrorism in Amsterdam. An English truck driver finds a very unpleasant piece of dead cargo in the back of his wagon. An imam preaches tolerance and becomes a marked man. Can Bingo and his friend Titania make sense of it all, and help Kamyonistan survive? As they mull over the mysteries and contradictions of Islam with their friend Mehmet, and ponder the future of the two youngsters, Ro and Nuri, it becomes clear that the author Robert Hackford has created another jewel of a book something to savour on the golden road to Kamyonistan and all points east.

At one level, Robert Hackford's immensely readable novel is about the tough world of intercontinental truck drivers, treacherous mountain passes, desert storms and TIR truck stops in the Middle East, focussing on the 'Kamyonistan' community near Damascus in Syria. At another level, it's a tender, discreetly told story of two teenage boys, Ro and Nuri, one English, one Arab, who find themselves in a harsh moral environment tainted by fundamentalism. They look to each other for comfort, and discover firdaus - paradise. Few authors touch on such sensitive issues as these, and Kamyonistan is bound to appeal to a broad range of readers, especially youngsters. It is a feast for the casual reader, for the traveller and truck addict, and for the philosopher in search of kismet.

This book is a companion to the hugely popular Lorries of Arabia: ERF NGC, published in 2015. The first book made tribute to ERF's world-class long-hauler, focussing in particular on the Middle-East examples, and to those who drove them. It was acclaimed for its "evocative photographs" and Robert's "passionate" and descriptive style of writing and Truck and Driver called it "essential reading for the many enthusiasts of this golden chapter in haulage history".Lorries of Arabia 2 continues to explore the fortunes of this legendary machine. Including 100 fully captioned pictures, many of which have only been brought to light since the publication of Lorries, this volume clearly demonstrates the romance of the road. This book will enhance and enrich the body of knowledge pertaining to the culture of the Middle-East run in the 1970s/80s and will further delight fans of the first book, whetting their appetite for more