or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
27 used & new from £3.00
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Mezzaterra: Fragments from the Common Ground
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside another edition of this book

Mezzaterra: Fragments from the Common Ground (Paperback)

by Ahdaf Soueif (Author)
1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
Price: £8.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Only 4 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, November 17? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
18 new from £3.95 9 used from £3.00
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Paperback £9.07 £9.12 16 used & new from £1.87

Frequently Bought Together

Mezzaterra: Fragments from the Common Ground + I Think of You + In the Eye of the Sun
Price For All Three: £19.94

Show availability and delivery details

  • This item: Mezzaterra: Fragments from the Common Ground by Ahdaf Soueif

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • I Think of You by Ahdaf Soueif

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • In the Eye of the Sun by Ahdaf Soueif

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

In the Eye of the Sun

In the Eye of the Sun

by Ahdaf Soueif
4.2 out of 5 stars (13)  £5.98
I Think of You

I Think of You

by Ahdaf Soueif
1.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £4.97
The Map of Love

The Map of Love

by Ahdaf Soueif
4.0 out of 5 stars (31)  £6.96
Angels in America: Part One [Millennium Approaches] & Part Two [Perestroika]

Angels in America: Part One [Millennium Approaches] & Part Two [Perestroika]

by Tony Kushner
4.7 out of 5 stars (3)  £8.55
The Female Eunuch (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)

The Female Eunuch (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)

by Germaine Greer
3.5 out of 5 stars (10)  £6.47
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (1 Nov 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0747577250
  • ISBN-13: 978-0747577256
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 420,112 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #9 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > S > Soueif, Ahdaf
    #51 in  Books > Fiction > World > Arabic

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Review

'Soueif is a political analyst and commentator of the best kind' London Review of Books


Product Description

"Globalisation is happening. It is driven by economics, ideology and communications. But does this have to entail the annexation of chunks of the world by the Great Power of any given moment? Surely that is the path to constant conflict, to grief and misery. There is another way: to inhabit and broaden the common ground. This is the ground where everybody is welcome, the ground we need to defend and to expand. It is in Mezzaterra that every responsible person on this planet now needs to pitch their tent. This is the ground from which this book is calling." Ahdaf Soueif is one of the finest commentators of our time. Her clear-eyed reporting is syndicated throughout the world, and these essays, written between 1981 and the present, are collected here for the first time. They are the direct result of Soueif's own circumstances of being, as she puts it, "like hundreds of thousands of others: people with an Arab or a Muslim background doing daily double-takes when faced with their reflection in a western mirror". From visiting Palestine and entering the Noble Sanctuary for the first time, to interpretations of women who choose to wear the veil, and to post-September 11th commentary, these selected essays are always perceptive, fearless, intelligent and necessary.
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
Search inside this book:

Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Mezzaterra: Fragments from the Common Ground
46% buy the item featured on this page:
Mezzaterra: Fragments from the Common Ground 1.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£8.99
In the Eye of the Sun
18% buy
In the Eye of the Sun 4.2 out of 5 stars (13)
£5.98
Aisha
16% buy
Aisha 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
I Think of You
10% buy
I Think of You 1.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£4.97
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

1 Review
5 star:    (0)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
1.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
14 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Fiction not fact, 21 Aug 2005
By A Customer
I found this book shelved under fiction at my local library and was pleased to find it because I've enjoyed two of her novels. Now I've read it I'm left bemused. The first part is reprints of some of her Guardian articles on Israel/Palestine, the second mainly book reviews. If I'd read the book reviews first I might have understood the political essays better: they are mostly surprisingly ungenerous and try to put the authors down by explaining how much better Soueif understands Egypt and Egyptians than they do, often putting undue emphasis on small issues of language and other details. The political essays are either mendacious or naïve and at times truly shocking. She justifies Arafat's refusal to negotiate with Barak and Clinton at Taba by saying that Clinton was on the way out and he believed it better to wait for Bush, the oil-man. This is an argument from hindsight: no one knew before the election whether Gore or Bush would win and does not begin to justify the subsequent pain and deaths among both Israelis and Palestinians which could have been avoided if Arafat had been willing to negotiate rather than initiating the intifada - Churchill was right when he said 'jaw-jaw is better than war-war'. She says 'a 'believing' Muslim cannot hate a Christian or a Jew because of who they are since Islam is clear that Muslims must live in fellowship with people of the Book'. This ignores the vile anti-Jewish sentiments preached in mosques and published in the Arab press in recent years, including a resuscitation of the mediaeval Christian blood libel that Jews use human blood to manufacture festival foods. She is falsely told that the 2 new immigrants to Israel who lost their way and were lynched in Ramallah were government agents who pretend to be Arabs and prints this without question. She claims Palestinians looking for peace cannot be expected to meet Israelis who do not accept the right of return of Palestinian refugees into Israel as well as the future Palestinian state - since there are Palestinians who say that the way forward for peace is to acknowledge that Israel cannot be asked to accept the return of the refugees to Israel as well as to Palestine, as that would destroy Israel as a Jewish state while creating three Palestinian states (Jordan, Israel and Palestine) in the area in which Britain was given as a Mandate to create a home for Jews, why does Soueif present one possible view, albeit a narrow-minded one, as if it is the only valid one. She refuses to accept that the world-view of Israeli writers has any validity - surely the only way for peace to come in the Middle East is for both sides to learn to understand the mindset of the other: anyone who refuses to accept this is open to the accusation that they are using the Middle East to further their reputation as a writer rather than seriously working for peace. Soueif's novels show she is a magnificent writer of fiction but I think my librarians have a point - her political commentary is also a great work of fiction.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject








i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.