The Hakawati

By: Rabih Alameddine

Narrated by: Assaf Cohen

In 2003, Osama al-Kharrat returns to Beirut after many years in America to stand vigil at his father's deathbed. As the family gathers, stories begin to unfold: Osama's grandfather was a hakawati, or storyteller, and his bewitching tales are interwoven with classic stories of the Middle East. Here are Abraham and Isaac; Ishmael, father of the Arab tribes; the beautiful Fatima; Baybars, the slave prince who vanquished the Crusaders; and a host of mischievous imps. Through Osama, we also enter the world of the contemporary Lebanese men and women whose stories tell a larger, heartbreaking tale of seemingly endless war, conflicted identity, and survival. With The Hakawati, Rabih Alameddine has given us an Arabian Nights for this century.

©2008 Rabih Alameddine (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Great book, poor narration

How did the narrator detract from the book?

This is a *wonderful* book, but the narration causes a lot of superficial problems, to the point where I'm switching to the print version. What's consistently most aggravating is the narrator's poor Arabic accent, which is very distracting and just winds up sounding like a bad parody. Also, his English pronunciation can be weirdly off (hearth does not rhyme with earth). And why does he pronounce Baybars without the S? Finally, and most deadly to the narration, there is seldom an adequate pause for section breaks. Only a second or two more would make a huge difference in marking the switch from tale to tale, which is critical in such a carefully woven story.

Over rated

Below average, difficult to follow, jumps between stories back and forth with no interuption.
Did not enjoy it

For lovers of storytelling

Alameddine’s best work! The stories are so beautifully woven together. A pleasure to listen to. Cohen annoyingly mispronounced the Arabic names, but his interpretation of the different characters was not bad at all.

Complicated & dense but rich!

This book was much easier to listen to rather than read and the narrator does an incredible job.

Fattouch Salad

I couldn’t follow who in the name of man was who. The story is too chaotic, moving in and out non stop between drivel and reality. There isn’t one story but a bunch of chaotic sub plots. This is the equivalent of a Fattouch salad, a tasty Lebanese salad with too many ingredients to know exactly what is in it. Sadly this is not as tasty as a fattouch salad.