Winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature 'A gritty, modern Romeo and Juliet told by a compelling and original voice' Independent 'He is a tremendous storyteller ... a cracking debut, as moving as it is entertaining' New York Times _____________________ Charlie has a story to tell, about his best friends Sinéad and James and the bad things that happened. But he can't tell it yet, at least not 'til he's worked out where the beginning is. Because is the beginning long ago when Sinéad first spoke up for him after Charlie got in trouble at school for the millionth time? Or was it later, when Sinéad and James followed the music and found each other? Or was it later still on that terrible night when something unspeakable happened and someone chose to turn a blind eye? This is the story of the dark heart of an Irish village, of how daring to be different can be dangerous and how there is nothing a person will not do for love. This is the story of the Gamal.
Meet Charlie. People think he's crazy. But he's not. People think he's stupid. But he's not. People think he's innocent... He's the Gamal. Charlie has a story to tell, about his best friends Sinead and James and the bad things that happened. But he can't tell it yet, at least not 'til he's worked out where the beginning is. Is the beginning long ago when Sinead first spoke up for him after Charlie got in trouble at school for the millionth time? Or was it later, when Sinead and James followed the music and found each other? Or was it later still on that terrible night when something unspeakable happened after closing time and someone chose to turn a blind eye? Charlie has promised Dr Quinn he'll write 1,000 words a day, but it's hard to know which words to write. And which secrets to tell. This is the story of the dark heart of an Irish village, of how daring to be different can be dangerous, and how there is nothing a person will not do for love. Exhilarating, bitingly funny and unforgettably poignant, this is a story like no other. This is the story of the Gamal.
A mosaic of interrelated stories exploding with personality, myth, and geohistorical weight, Morning in Serra Mattu is a profound, joyful meditation on life in modern Sudan. Arif Gamal seamlessly blends large-scale political realities with the local and the traditional: “old villages/whose ancient way is so composed/each single blade of grass is known/and in its place.” Epic in scope, spellbinding in its intimacy, generosity, and wisdom, Morning in Serra Mattu is the book we didn’t know we needed. how thrilling it was in the earliest morning to race barefoot down the sandy slopes and dunes with all the bellowing goats and dogs and sheep and other animals for their first morning drink and to swim in the fresh waters of the flowing river while the thousand upon thousand of high unhindered Nubian stars began to fall away before a tinge of milky line along the hills until light grew from nearly nothing to an immensity —from “Return to Serra Mattu”
Amal the Thirsty Gamal is for every child who might be struggling with how he or she is perceived by others. (Oh yes, camels care about that, too!) Our little hero has spent too many years listening to all the wrong voices and thinking all the wrong things: about his hump, about his appearance, about himself. But-oh!-get ready! Because "wise men" have joined this particular caravan journey, and when one of them speaks up around the campfire one night, everything changes for little Amal the Gamal!
This comprehensive treatment of network information theory and its applications provides the first unified coverage of both classical and recent results. With an approach that balances the introduction of new models and new coding techniques, readers are guided through Shannon's point-to-point information theory, single-hop networks, multihop networks, and extensions to distributed computing, secrecy, wireless communication, and networking. Elementary mathematical tools and techniques are used throughout, requiring only basic knowledge of probability, whilst unified proofs of coding theorems are based on a few simple lemmas, making the text accessible to newcomers. Key topics covered include successive cancellation and superposition coding, MIMO wireless communication, network coding, and cooperative relaying. Also covered are feedback and interactive communication, capacity approximations and scaling laws, and asynchronous and random access channels. This book is ideal for use in the classroom, for self-study, and as a reference for researchers and engineers in industry and academia.
Take a stroll through Salamville, where the sun is shining, the birds chirping, the flowers blooming, and where Cranky Kareem seems to be a little, well, cranky today. In the very first installment of The Salams series, Cranky Kareem encounters the bubbly and perfectly positive Happy Hamdi. Cranky Kareem is determined to prove to him that it is simply impossible to be that grateful all the time but finds that maybe even crankiest fuzzy monster in town can learn to say Alhumdulillah.
This book provides an overview of the practice of Islamic finance and the historical roots that define its modes of operation. The focus of the book is analytical and forward-looking. It shows that Islamic finance exists mainly as a form of rent-seeking legal-arbitrage. In every aspect of finance - from personal loans to investment banking, and from market structure to corporate governance - Islamic finance aims to replicate in Islamic forms the substantive functions of contemporary financial instruments, markets, and institutions. By attempting to replicate the substance of contemporary financial practice using pre-modern contract forms, Islamic finance has arguably failed to serve the objectives of Islamic law. This book proposes refocusing Islamic finance on substance rather than form. This approach would entail abandoning the paradigm of 'Islamization' of every financial practice. It would also entail reorienting the brand-name of Islamic finance to emphasize issues of community banking, micro-finance, and socially responsible investment.
Examines the life and leadership skills of Egyptian president Gamal-Abdel Nasser, who led the revolt that overthrew King Faruk in 1952 and established Egypt as a republic.
The rescue of the last diving horse in America and the inspiring story of how horse and animal rescuer were each profoundly transformed by the other—from the award-winning animal rescuer of retired racing greyhounds and author of the best-selling Adopting the Racing Greyhound It was the signature of Atlantic City’s Steel Pier in the golden age of “America’s Favorite Playground”: Doc Carver’s High Diving Horses. Beginning in 1929, four times a day, seven days a week, a trained horse wearing only a harness ran up a ramp, a diving girl in a bathing suit and helmet jumped onto its mighty bare back, and together they sailed forty feet through the air, plunging, to thunderous applause, into a ten-foot-deep tank of water. Decades later, after cries of animal abuse and changing times, the act was shuttered, and in May 1980, the last Atlantic City Steel Pier diving horse was placed on the auction block in Indian Mills, New Jersey. The author, who had seen the act as a child and had been haunted by it, was now working with Cleveland Amory, the founding father of the modern animal protection movement, and she was, at the last minute, sent on a rescue mission: bidding for the horse everyone had come to buy, some for the slaughterhouse (they dropped out when the bidding exceeded his weight). The author’s winning bid: $2,600—and Gamal, gleaming-coated, majestic, commanding, was hers; she who knew almost nothing about horses was now the owner of the last diving horse in America. Cynthia Branigan tells the magical, transformative story of how horse and new owner (who is trying to sort out her own life, feeling somewhat lost herself and in need of rescuing) come to know each other, educate each other, and teach each other important lessons of living and loving. She writes of providing a new home for Gamal, a farm with plentiful fields of rich, grazing pasture; of how Gamal, at age twenty-six, blossoms in his new circumstances; and of the special bond that slowly grows and deepens between them, as Gamal tests the author and grows to trust her, and as she grows to rely upon him as friend, confidant, teacher. She writes of her search for Gamal’s past: moved from barn to barn, from barrel racer to rodeo horse, and ending up on the Steel Pier; how his resilience and dignity throughout those years give deep meaning to his life; and how in understanding this, the author is freed from her own past, which had been filled with doubts and fears and darkness. Branigan writes of the history of diving horses and of how rescuing and caring for Gamal led to her saving other animals—burros, llamas, and goats—first as company for Gamal and then finding homes for them all; and, finally, saving a ten-year-old retired greyhound called King—despondent, nearly broken in spirit—who, running free in the fields with Gamal, comes back to his happy self and opens up for the author a whole new surprising but purposeful world. A captivating tale of the power of animals and the love that can heal the heart and restore the soul.
