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About this Man Called Ali the Purple Life of an Arab Artist

written by Amal Ghandour

Eland Publishing Ltd | ISBN 9781906011321

Hardback – 320 pages

$49.95

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Ali Al Jabri was an Arab artist who was murdered in 2002, a violent and lonely end to a life of passionate creativity and a restless search for identity. Ali was stranded between an English education and a struggle to find relevance in his Arab homeland, caught between his talents and his insecurities, his sexuality and the claims of his distinguished family. Amal Ghandour's painstakingly researched portrait reaches beyond the angst of a troubled artist to illuminate a whole people and a lost era. She reveals the lasting effects of colonial attitudes, and how the twin brutalities of the Arab world - Islamic fundamentalism and nationalistic military regimes - have waged war against the cultural and political possibilites of the region. Ali refused to remain an Arab expatriate, an exile in the gilded drawing rooms of Manhattan, Paris and London, and for this he paid with his life.
This fascinating, intimate and candid biography reveals more about the intricate realities of the Middle East than a dozen textbooks.

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