"The only serious work of fiction that tries to show the effect of oil, Americans and the local oligarchy on a Gulf country."--Edward W. Said

Cities of Salt is a novel by Abdelrahman Munif. It was first published in Beirut in 1984 and was immediately recognized as a major work of Arab literature. It was translated into English by Peter Theroux. The novel, and the quintet of which it is the first volume, describes the far-reaching effects of the discovery of huge reserves of oil under a once-idyllic oasis somewhere on the Arabian peninsula.

Year: 1987

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