Elias Khalil has narrated 4 audiobooks on Listento.it by 4 authors, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 1 ratings. The most-rated is When the Bard Came Visiting.
When the Bard Came Visiting
Summary
A cantankerous old woman is charged with aiding a young girl. A male dryad finds his place in the world. Paralyzed from the neck down, a teenage sculpting prodigy is given a new opportunity to pursue her art again. A Victorian professor journeys across England to lecture on evolution, only to walk into trouble at every turn. In this eclectic mix of stories, spanning historical fiction, magical realism, contemporary, and sci-fi, When the Bard Came Visiting instructs only one thing: Journey away with the words, and see where they take you.
©2020 Kathryn Rossati (P)2020 Kathryn Rossati
Escape from Baghdad!
Summary
Welcome to Baghdad during the US invasion. A desperate American military has created a power vacuum that needs to be filled. Religious fanatics, mercenaries, occultists, and soldiers are all vying for power. So how do regular folks try to get by? If you're Dagr and Kinza, a former economics professor and a streetwise hoodlum, you turn to dealing in the black market. But everything is about to change, because they have inherited a very important prisoner: the star torturer of Hussein's recently collapsed regime, Captain Hamid, who promises them untold riches if they smuggle him out of Baghdad. With the heat on and nothing left for them in Baghdad, they enlist the help of Private Hoffman, their partner in crime and a US Marine. In the chaos of a city without rule, getting out of Baghdad is no easy task and when they become embroiled in a mystery surrounding an ancient watch that doesn't tell time, nothing will ever be the same. With a satiric eye firmly cast on the absurdity of human violence, Escape from Baghdad! features shades of Catch-22 and Three Kings while giving voice, ribald humor, and firepower to to people often referred to as "collateral damage".
©2020 Saad Z. Hossain (P)2020 Scribd Audio
Beirut Noir
Summary
Featuring brand new stories by: Rawi Hage, Muhammad Abi Samra, Leila Eid, Hala Kawtharani, Marie Tawk, Bana Baydoun, Hyam Yared, Najwa Barakat, Alawiyeh Sobh, Mazen Zahreddine, Abbas Beydoun, Bachir Hilal, Zena El Khalil, Mazen Maarouf, and Tarek Abi Samra. From the introduction by Iman Humaydan (translated by Michelle Hartman): “Beirut is a city of contradiction and paradox. It is an urban and rural city, one of violence and forgiveness, memory and forgetfulness. Beirut is a city of war and peace. This short story collection is a part of a vibrant, living recovery of Beirut. Beirut Noir recovers the city once again through writing, through the literary visions of its authors.... “From within this collection of stories, a general attitude toward Beirut emerges: the city is viewed from a position of critique, doubt, disappointment, and despair. The stories here show the vast maze of the city that can’t be found in tourist brochures or nostalgic depictions of Beirut that are completely out of touch with reality. Perhaps this goes without saying in a collection of stories titled Beirut Noir. But the ‘noir’ label here should be viewed from multiple angles, and it takes on many different forms in the stories. No doubt this is because it is imbricated in the distinct moments that Beirut has lived through and how they are depicted in the stories.”
©2021 Imam Humaydan (P)2021 Scribd Audio
Night of Blood and Beauty
Summary
Long before Amir taught Eleanora the harder truths of life, he learned them himself as he fell in love with her mother. Constantinople, 1845 Amir Qureshi knew his life would never be the same the day he met Nadežda Ollerton-Cerná, much to his chagrin. With her sharp wit and brazen charm, Nadežda is as infuriating as she is irresistible, and Amir cannot stop himself from falling in love with her - even though they can never be together. As an ally to the Order of the Crystal Daggers, under the command of Nadežda’s indomitable mother, Amir knows there is no place for love in the life of a spy. When they are sent to Constantinople to investigate a missing shipment of weapons, Nadežda’s life is endangered, and Amir races to save her, knowing he cannot deny his heart any longer. But Amir is not the only one who is keeping secrets. From the book: “Miss Eleanor.” The desperation in his voice was only matched by his irritation, and the moment he said anything, Amir feared he had inadvertently given himself away. The sapphire eyes he had come to both love and hate twinkled mischievously at him. “Why, Mr. Qureshi, I do believe you’re quite flustered. Especially if you’re going to use your manners. Where are those mongrel ways of yours? I might mistake you for a real gentleman with such a formal tone.” Her lyrical, teasing voice did nothing to lighten his mood; rather, it plucked at his heartstrings with a bittersweet twang, and Amir had to force himself to remain still as he stared down at her. It would do nothing for his case if he showed any further sign of compromise, especially now that his partner sensed his weakness. “It is only proper I address you as such, Miss Eleanor,” Amir said, keeping his voice stripped of all his conflicting emotions. “Your mother, Her Grace, would be the first to agree with me.” At the mention of her mother, her gaze only grew bolder. “We both know my mother’s favorite thing in the world is being a hypocrite.”
©2018 C. S. Johnson (P)2021 Christina Johnson