Midnight Tales: A Woman's Journey through the Middle East

“Sociologist and author Al-Rawi (Grandmother’s Secrets) here offers up a collection of poetic vignettes about past and present Arab folkways in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. Weaving together childhood memories and interviews with Arab women, she draws the reader behind closed doors to meet a colorful and intriguing casts of characters, including her Aunts Fatima and Kawthar, her Uncle Mahmoud, her brother Manour, her parents, her grandmother, and many other good-hearted people. Al-Rawi’s writing is deeply evocative: the reader sees, hears, touches, and tastes what she describes. Rich with historical and cultural detail about a wide range of subjects-from shopping in a carpet souk to female circumcision,...