Kanan Makiya

From the best-selling author of "Republic of Fear, "here is a gritty and unflinching novel about Iraqi failure in the wake of the 2003 American invasion, as seen through the eyes of a Shi ite militiaman whose participation in the execution of Saddam Hussein changes his life in ways he could never have anticipated. When the nameless narrator stumbles upon a corpse on April 10, 2003, the day of the fall of Saddam Hussein, he finds himself swept up in the tumultuous politics of the American occupation and is taken on a journey that concludes with the discovery of what happened to his father, who disappeared into the Tyrant s gulag in 1991. When he was a child, his questions about his father were ignored by his mother and his uncle, in whose house he was raised. Older now, he is fighting in his uncle s Army of the Awaited One, which is leading an insurrection against the Occupier. He slowly begins to piece together clues about his father s fate, which turns out to be intertwined with that of the mysterious corpse. But not until the last hour before the Tyrant s execution is the narrator given the final piece of the puzzle from Saddam Hussein himself. "The Rope "is both a powerful examination of the birth of sectarian politics out of a legacy of betrayal, victimhood, secrecy, and loss, and an enduring story about the haste with which identity is cobbled together and then undone. Told with fearless honesty and searing intensity, "The Rope "will haunt its readers long after they finish the final page."

The Rock of Jerusalem is a religious artifact and symbol claimed by Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike. Its significance and history is explored by Kanan Mikaya, a professor at Brandeis University. Mikaya also describes the construction of the Dome of the Rock, which was built by the cooperation of all three faiths.

Desde el momento en que al joven Ishaq, a finales del siglo VII, se le encarga la construcción de la Cúpula de la Roca (Qubbat as-Sahra), emprende una recopilación de las diversas historias y leyendas asociadas a este espacio mitico en el que se concentra el ancimiento de las tres grandes culturas monoteistas. Combinando los relatos a que va teniendo acceso con el recuerdo de lo que le contara en su dia su padre, que tuvo una participacion activa en la conquista arabe de la Ciudad Santa, va construyendo, al mismo tiempo que la cupula, un hipertexto del origen de las tres religiones. La Roca es una novela sorprendente, que se sirve de muy diversos textos (sagrados y laicos) y de estrategias narrativas propias del ensayo, para conformar una novela historica original, proxima al colage, que abre nuevos espacios de reflexion a la escritura de ficcion historica. El mestizaje cultural y el dialogo entre culturas son sin duda dos temas de plena actualidad, y el hecho de que los aborde un intelectual nacido en Bagdad y residente en Estados Unidos hace de este libro una obra a tener muy en cuenta.