Hussin Alkheder

Four Ladies Hussin Alkheder

From Middle Eastern storyteller, Hussin Alkheder, comes a collection of short stories influenced by the four major cities he's lived in: Damascus, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, and Shanghai. These four grand ladies have played important roles in his life journey. In the Four Ladies, we find three stories based in Damascus, the cradle of history: Hand Made Crutches makes us feel the suffering of a mother with four daughters and a disabled son; The Green Bus gives a glimpse of Damascus both before and after the war; Love in the Time of Corona portrays the way some Middle Eastern deal with the virus. Next, Hussin is our tour guide in the luxurious city of Dubai: Baking Bread, is a murder mystery; Lucky Ending tells how a Syrian tourist in Dubai is reminded of his house when he sees the fantastic buildings; and Hamama is a sad story about a road-killed pigeon. From there we fly to the enchanting city of Kuala Lumpur: Akev takes place in one of the modern buildings of Kuala Lumpur opposite the twin towers; The Power of Words tells of a conversation between the words on the page when they interrupt their author's writing; in Bedtime Story we learn of a father who lacked parental love. The last three stories come from the mega city of Shanghai, with its miraculous system: The Writer takes us into the future to meet a construction tycoon who dreamed of being a writer; The Cure introduces us to a spiritual man who spent ten years feeding stray cats on the streets of Shanghai; and finally, On the Metro deals with a passenger who thinks he sees evidence of a murder on a passenger's smartphone.