Literature from the 'Axis of Evil': Writing from Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Other Enemy Nations

by Words Without Borders

Overview

Subject of a full-length segment on Morning Edition when it first appeared in hardcover, Literature from the "Axis of Evil" quickly went to the top of the Amazon bestseller list. Its publication was celebrated by authors including Azar Nafisi and Alice Walker, and the Bloomsbury Review named it a "book of the year."

In thirty–five works of fiction and poetry, writers from countries Americans have not been allowed to hear from—until the Treasury Department revised its regulations recently—offer an invaluable window on daily life in "enemy nations" and humanize the individuals living there. The book includes works from Syria, Lybia, the Sudan, Cuba, as well as from Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. As editor Alane Mason writes in the introduction, "Not knowing what the rest of the world is thinking and writing is both dangerous and boring."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781595582058
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	09/01/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	8.06(w) x 5.38(h) x 0.87(d)

About the Author

Words Without Borders is an online magazine for international literature. A partner of PEN American Center, it is hosted by Columbia Universityand Bard College and funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Editorial Reviews

"Reading Literature from the 'Axis of Evil' inevitably makes you think about whether art and literature can help prevent hatred and even war." —San Francisco Chronicle

"[It] has more to say about the historical complexities, conflicts, and nuances of so-called enemy nations than a hundred shelves of polemics and political rhetoric that clutter the front rows of our bookstores." —The Bloomsbury Review

"The best kind of armchair travel book, one that gifts its reader with the cultural understanding and appreciation that even travel doesn't always provide. . . . If you read this book, you will know more than the Administration does about the cultures and people of America's so-called enemy nations." —Maudnewton.com

From the Publisher