Librairie El Bourj To Host Lebanon Launch Of Olives – A Violent Romance
One of Beirut’s most well-established bookshops, Librairie El Bourj, is to host the official launch of UAE-based writer, author and communicator Alexander McNabb’s Olives – A Violent Romance from 5pm on Thursday 29th March 2012 with a talk by the author followed by a reading and book signing.
The novel is set in Jordan, where British journalist Paul Stokes moves to live and work on a contract to produce a magazine for the Ministry of Natural Resources. The Israelis are competing for dwindling water resources as Jordan and Palestine face drought. Daoud Dajani has the solution to Jordan’s water problems and is bidding against the British for the privatisation of Jordan’s water network. When Paul befriends Dajani’s sister, Aisha, British intelligence agent Gerald Lynch realises Paul offers access to the man threatening to drain Israel’s water supply and snatch the bid from the British. Blackmailed by Lynch into spying on Dajani, his movements seemingly linked to a series of bombings, Paul is pitched into a terrifying fight for survival that forces him to betray everyone around him. Even the woman he comes to love.
“Olives is about a European sensibility being confronted with the realities behind the news reports from the Middle East, about trying to come to terms with being immersed in someone else’s conflict. It’s also about how our views and natural sympathies can be changed by being personally involved in things that we have become used to viewing dispassionately: how the people dying on our screens have just become another drama to us.” Said McNabb.
Reviewing Olives, prominent Palestinian media figure Daoud Kuttab said, "...in an era when Arabs are only useful to the thriller genre as terrorists and collateral damage, McNabb’s attempt to portray a more complicated Middle East is important. Its potential impact on Western audiences shouldn’t be underestimated." while UAE newspaper The National said, "The intensity of Paul and Aisha’s love story is the novel’s defining strength with their intimacy heating up to a feverish pitch as disasters escalate and put them at risk” and Middle East Monitor dubbed the book, "a hard-hitting novel tackling real-life issues coming out of the Palestine-Israel conflict."
Lebanese journalist and writer Magda Abu-Fadil, reviewing Olives for the Huffington Post said, “It's been ages since I've come across a gripping and realistic novel that displays elements of what residents in the Middle East live and breathe on a daily basis.”
Read Magazine’s verdict was, “what really impresses is McNabb’s ability to offer a balanced view on the tensions in Jordan—he really has done his research. This makes Olives an educational read as well as an enthralling and entertaining one.”
The book has attracted significant controversy with its depiction of life in Jordan’s wealthy Abdoun district, the moral dilemmas the books characters face and its exploration of the water crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“Olives was originally intended to introduce a British audience to some of the 'issues' on the border, but it appears to have found a fast and deep resonance with Arab readers,” said McNabb. “Olives has been highly popular with readers in the UAE and is now available in Lebanese bookshops.”
There are editions of Olives – A Violent Romance in print, Kindle, Nook and iBooks. The book is available internationally from Amazon or The Book Depository. Olives is distributed in Lebanon by Levant Distribution.
About the author
Alexander McNabb has been working in, living in and travelling around the Middle East for over 25 years. Formerly a journalist, editor and magazine publisher, today he spends his time advising companies on their communications strategies, with a particular focus on digital and online communications. He is a director of Middle East communications agency Spot On PR.
Source: Naharnet
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