From the crippling effects of the civil war in past decades, through longing for romantic adventures in a conservative society, to the functioning of families across the divides of emigration and generational conflict, these voices reflect the rich diversity of the complex multicultural society out of which they emerged.

Roseanne Saad Khalaf is assistant professor of English and creative writing at the American University of Beirut.

«We could hardly need these more urgently than we do now.»The Independent

«Hikayat has established authors, promising newcomers and oodles of attitude...The book spans the breach between urban and rural, young and old, provincial and cosmopolitan, rich and poor, anglophone and francophone, rebellious sex bomb and too-chaste-to-be-believed, gay and straight...»