First published in 1989, Friedman's National Book Award-winning study of the Middle East is brought up-to-date with a new chapter examining critical events in 1995. (Aug.)

There have been any number of books that have worked hard at interpreting the melange called the Middle East. This one, however, makes a difference because it's so well written and captures the psychological mannerisms of the people of Lebanon and Israel--the first step to understanding some of the mysterious ``why'' that seems to elude the American public and government. Friedman's credentials are impressive: he spent six years of journalistic service for The New York Times in Beirut and Jerusalem, has won two Pulitzer prizes, and is now the Times' chief diplomatic correspondent.

His writing is vastly descriptive, incredibly illuminating, very educational, and marvelously persuasive. His advice to U.S. diplomats is that since ``Middle East diplomacy is a contact sport,'' they must bargain as grocers, or, in other words, realize that everything has a price and the sale can always be made with enough hard work. -- David P. Snider, Casa Grande Public Library, Arizona

The most intelligent and comprehensive account one is likely to read.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A book that must be read by all who are concerned about the present and future of a part of our world to which Western civilization has always been, and will continue to be, vitally connected.” —The Washington Post Book World

“A sparkling intellectual guidebook…An engrossing journey not to be missed.” —The Wall Street Journal

“A complex, illuminating vision written with a novelist's eye for the telling detail and a reporter's knack for the revealing quote.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Perhaps no other book written for a popular audience has so successfully explained the unexplainable….This book is an annotated road map to the past, and a brilliant crystal ball for the future.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Fascinating...Friedman has mastered his subject.” —Time

Friedman, the NEW YORK TIMES columnist now best known for his book on globalization, THE WORLD IS FLAT, was a correspondent in Lebanon and Israel in the tumultuous 1980s. This production is an abridgment of his book about those years, with the focus on his personal adventures rather than political analysis. Friedman tells compelling stories, but his narration is oddly detached. He relates how he watched a man being kidnapped, how his apartment was bombed, and a host of other harrowing events with the same glibness he uses to spin humorous anecdotes. It’s not that he writes without compassion, only that one doesn’t hear it in his voice. D.B. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine