In this classic love story featuring passion, jealousy and murder, and set in pre-World War II Iraq, Farida, a Jewish woman and cabaret singer, struggles for survival and her freedom in a world on the edge of upheaval and on which falls the dark shadow of war.

Naïm Kattan is one of the grand old men of Quebec letters. Winner of Quebec's prestigious Prix Athanse-David as well as the French Légion d'honneur, he has published 32 books of poetry, essays, and fiction, all in French, since coming to Canada in 1954.

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Antonio D'Alfonso was born in Montreal. He studied at Loyola College from 1970 to 1975, where he got his B.A. in Communication Arts. Later on he went to Université de Montréal to complete his Master's Science Degree in Communication Studies, specializing in Semiology; his thesis was on Mouchette, a film by Robert Bresson. In 1978 he founded Guernica Editions, where he edited over 450 books by authors from around the world. In 1982 along with three other writers, he founds the trilingual magazine, Vice Versa. In 1986, along with three other writers, he founded the Association of Italian-Canadian writers. He has taught at Université of Montréal, Continuing Studies at University of Toronto, University of Californa, in San Diego. He is presently a writer in residence at McGill University (French language and literature department).

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In Faraj Bayrakdar's short verses life struggles against despair; humanity throws itself against the bars of the captor's cell. It's through these slim spaces that art must do its trick: slither in and remind us that creativity is a belief in the impossible. John Asfour's skillful translations of these poems are honed, accurate and spring-loaded with intensity. — Elee Kraljii Gardiner, co-editor with John Asfour of V6A: Writing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside