Annotation
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Shadid, also author of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner Night Draws Near, was among four New York Times reporters captured in Libya last spring and held for six days by forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi. After being released, Shadid returned to an estate built by his great-grandfather in Lebanon that he had been working for two years to restore. His stay there led to this meditation on past and present, former Middle East grandeur and his family's flight from Lebanon and resettlement in Oklahoma, current violence in the region, and the profound need for home. A memoir in which the personal meets the political-and Shadid has already demonstrated what he can deliver.
| Genre | NonFiction Historical Memoir |
| Topics | House renovation Family histories Cultural identity Social conditions Middle Eastern history |
| Setting | Lebanon |