When We Were Arabs: A Jewish Family's Forgotten History Contributor(s): Hayoun, Massoud (Author) |
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ISBN: 1620974169 ISBN-13: 9781620974162 Publisher: New Press OUR PRICE: $25.19 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: June 2019 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Personal Memoirs - History | Jewish - General - History | Middle East - Israel & Palestine |
Dewey: B |
LCCN: 2018055994 |
Physical Information: 1.2" H x 5.8" W x 8.6" (1.05 lbs) 304 pages |
Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - Jewish - Cultural Region - Middle East |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: WINNER OF THE ARAB AMERICAN BOOK AWARD - NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR There was a time when being an Arab didn't mean you were necessarily Muslim. It was a time when Oscar Hayoun, a Jewish Arab, strode along the Nile in a fashionable suit, long before he and his father arrived at the port of Haifa to join the Zionist state only to find themselves hosed down with DDT and then left unemployed on the margins of society. In that time, Arabness was a mark of cosmopolitanism, of intellectualism. Today, in the age of the Likud and ISIS, Oscar's son, the Jewish Arab journalist Massoud Hayoun whom Oscar raised in Los Angeles, finds his voice by telling his family's story. To reclaim a worldly, nuanced Arab identity is, for Hayoun, part of the larger project to recall a time before ethnic identity was mangled for political ends. It is also a journey deep into a lost age of sophisticated innocence in the Arab world; an age that is now nearly lost. When We Were Arabs showcases the gorgeous prose of the Eppy Award-winning writer Massoud Hayoun, bringing the worlds of his grandparents alive, vividly shattering our contemporary understanding of what makes an Arab, what makes a Jew, and how we draw the lines over which we do battle. |
Contributor Bio(s): Hayoun, Massoud: - Massoud Hayoun is a journalist based in Los Angeles, most recently freelancing for Al Jazeera English and Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown online while writing a weekly column on foreign affairs for Pacific Standard. He previously worked as a reporter for Al Jazeera America, The Atlantic, Agence France-Presse, and the South China Morning Post and has been published widely. He speaks and works in five languages and won a 2015 EPPY Award. The author of When We Were Arabs: A Jewish Family's Forgotten History (The New Press), he lives in Los Angeles. |