About Middle East Encounters

By Nesreen | April 17th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

From a region always in the news but rarely known through the medium of storytelling comes an eclectic, insightful collection of contemporary first-person travel narratives from across the Middle East. Encounters with the Middle East collects thirty rich, engaging travel stories that capture uplifting scenes from everyday life and deliver sensitive, bittersweet renderings of people and landscapes often shaken by conflict. It also provides intimate portrayals of people and traditions too often absent from books on the region, while also situating the Western traveler in many tourist destinations, from the famous to the obscure. This timely collection is geared toward a broad spectrum of readers ranging from the armchair traveler to the DC policy wonk; the stories in Encounters present intimate, disarming scenes of the people behind the headlines and policy reports. These narratives demonstrate how Western travelers can find grounds for identification with people who are so often misrepresented in today’s media.