Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for The Honored Dead by Joseph Braude - Available

The Honored Dead

A Story of Friendship, Murder, and the Search for Truth in the Arab World

by Joseph Braude
Benson Simmonds
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
The Arab Islamic world is known for religious extremism, ethnic conflicts, and, now, the overthrow of seemingly unshakable regimes—but if anything has become clear, it’s that our understanding of the region remains shrouded and incomplete. The seeds of revolution, radicalism, and—possibly—reform are buried in the individual stories of millions of people whose lives determine the fates of their societies, people whose motivations are as common, and as strange, as our own.

Here is one of those stories—and the story of how this world is being transformed, one life at a time.
 
Joseph Braude is the first Western journalist ever to secure embed status with an Arab security force, assigned to a hardened unit of detectives in Casablanca who handle everything from busting al-Qaeda cells to solving homicides. One day he’s given the file for a seemingly commonplace murder: a young guard at a warehouse killed in what appears to be a robbery gone wrong. Braude is intrigued by the details of the case: the sheer brutality of the murder, the identities of the accused—a soldier—and the victim, a shadowy migrant with links to a radical cleric, and the odd location: a warehouse owned by a wealthy member of one of the few thriving Jewish communities in the Arab world. After interviewing the victim’s best friend, who tearfully insists that the true story of the murder has been covered up by powerful interests, Braude commits to getting to the bottom of it.
Braude’s risky pursuit of the shocking truth behind the murder takes him from cosmopolitan Marrakesh to the proud Berber heartland, from the homes of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the country to the backstreets of Casablanca, where migrants come to make fortunes, jihad, and trouble, but often end up just trying to survive with dignity. The Honored Dead is a timely and riveting mystery about a society in transition, the power of the truth, and the irrepressible human need for justice.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 14, 2011

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780307939890
      • File size: 322129 KB
      • Duration: 11:11:06

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 11, 2011
      Journalist Braude (The New Iraq), an American of Iraqi Jewish origin, spent four months in Morocco embedded with a police precinct in Casablanca whose detectives infiltrate drug cartels, break up al-Qaeda cells, and pursue a variety of more routine criminals. Befriending an unemployed Muslim Berber named Muhammad Bari, the author investigates the brutal murder of Bari's best friendâa rural migrant killed in the warehouse where he spent his nights. Following the case with Bariâand suspecting the police of duplicity âBraude begins an investigation that takes him through the gamut of Moroccan society: Berber farming communities; wealthy, cosmopolitan Jewish neighborhoods; tin-roofed shantytowns; drab housing projects; bustling cafés, mosques and synagogues. A scholarly and perceptive observer, Braude intersperses the cloak-and-dagger narrative of the murder mystery with digressions on Morocco's history, geopolitics, and culture; the country's rich Jewish heritage; the role that magic, sorcery, and dream interpretation play in Moroccan society. This lyrical and engrossing book puts a human face on this "moderate, constructive player" in the politics of the Middle East, giving readers a firsthand glimpse of its glittering religious, intellectual, cultural historyâand its future.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading