Life is More Beautiful Than Paradise

A Jihadist's Own Story

Khaled al-Berry, Humphrey Davies

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Paperback

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English

I B TAURIS
30 October 2016

Autobiography: religious & spiritual; Memoirs; History; Terrorism, armed struggle

"In 1986, when this autobiography opens, the author is a typical fourteen-year-old boy in Asyut in Upper Egypt. Attracted at first by the image of a radical Islamist group as ""strong Muslims,"" his involvement develops until he finds himself deeply committed to its beliefs and implicated in its activities. This ends when, as he leaves the university following a demonstration, he is arrested. Prison, a return to life on the outside, and attending Cairo University all lead to Khaled al-Berry's eventual alienation from radical Islam. This book opens a window onto the mind of an extremist who turns out to be disarmingly like many other clever adolescents, and bears witness to a history with whose reverberations we continue to live. It also serves as an intelligent and critical guide for the reader to the movement's unfamiliar debates and preoccupations, motives and intentions. Fluently written, intellectually gripping, exciting, and often funny, Life Is More Beautiful than Paradise provides a vital key to the understanding of a world that is both a source of fear and a magnet of curiosity for the west."

By: Khaled al-Berry
Translated by: Humphrey Davies
Imprint: I B TAURIS
Edition: 1
Dimensions: Height: 230mm, Width: 150mm, Spine: 13mm
Weight: 349g
ISBN: 9789774168062
ISBN 10: 9774168062
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 30 October 2016
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Khaled al-Berry was born in Sohag, Egypt in 1972. He has a degree in medicine from Cairo University, and currently works as a journalist and writer in London, where he has been living since 1999. Humphrey Davies is the translator of a number of Arabic novels, including The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany (AUC Press, 2004). He has twice been awarded the Saif Ghobash-Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.

Reviews for Life is More Beautiful Than Paradise: A Jihadist's Own Story

Enjoyable and pioneering. --Marcia Lynx Qualey, al-Masri al-Yom The author's refusal to demonize and his relative objectivity in telling the story is precisely what makes this book authentic and extremely important. Above all it provides a rare and valuable insight into how easily the young idealist can become radicalized by sects who believe that truth has just one face. --The Huffington Post The memoir reaches the core of how fanatics--sects of any kind--draw in conceited youngsters by essentially appealing to a naive hunger for self-sacrifice. --The Independent a gripping narrative --Church Times Captivating and exciting, Life is More Beautiful than Paradise provides valuable insights into the jihadist world-view --Church Times offers a rare perspective --Diplomat magazine Al-Berry's [work] is required reading for anyong with an interest in the mechanics of radical Islam or the historical realities of militant Islamic activism in Egypt in the last two decades of the 20th century. . . . The sensitivity to the nuances of the Arabic language and Islamist idiom made manifest in the meritorious translation of Humphrey Davies truly makes this work an ideal jumping-off point for any Westerner who is curious about reading the Muslim mind --Al-Ahram Weekly