num_pages: 208
description: In the nineteen extraordinary stories that comprise The Devil Is a Black Dog and Other Stories  writer and photojournalist Sndor Jszbernyi shows us the human side of war and revolution in the contemporary Middle East and Africa and of the social upheaval that has held Eastern Europe in its grip since the fall of communism. Characters contemplate the meaning of home love despair family and friendship against the backdrop of brutality. From Cairo to the Gaza Strip from Benghazi to Budapest religious men have their faith challenged and people under the duress of war or traumatic personal memories deal with the feelings that emerge. Often they seem to suppress these feelings . . . but no not quite. Set in countries the author has reported from or lived in these stories are all told from different perspectives but always with the individual at the the mother the soldier the martyr the religious man the journalist and so on. They form a kaleidoscope of miniworlds of moments of decisions that together put a face an emotion a thought behind humans who confront war and conflict. Although they are fiction they could have all happened exactly as they are told. Each story leaves a powerful visual image an unforgettable image you conjure up again and again. Jszbernyi is able to do all this so convincingly in part because he himself is not a helicopter journalist but rather lives in a residential Cairo neighborhood. He is moreover from a corner of Eastern Europe where cynicism almost equates with survival and yet his writing evinces not only wry humor but great sensitivity and a profound sense of beauty. He speaks Arabic (in addition to English and his native Hungarian) and immerses himself in the society he reports on. But in doing so he still remains a reporter and as such the stories are approached with the clinical observant eye of an outsider. Whether addressing the contradictions of international humanitarian work or the moral dilemmas faced by those who seek to improve the health and lives of women and girls he does so in a singularly provocative and yet intelligent manner.
language: English
title: The Devil is a Black Dog: Stories from the Middle East and Beyond
publisher: New Europe Books