“ fascination for inner perception, helped along with a delight in Scheherazadian frames and exotic lore, makes for quite a rich experience: a strangely playful construct that, like an intricate Chinese box, delights with each unexpected combination and hidden drawer.” - Kirkus Reviews Read moreįor a long time I used to go to bed early. “ The Arabian Nightmare is a conceit worthy of Borges.” - The New York Times The smooth steely grip of Irwin’s story-telling genius is a joy to read.” - The Washington Post The result is a thought-provoking puzzle box of sex, philosophy, and theology, reminiscent of Italo Calvino and Umberto Eco. He narrates a complex tangle of dreams and imaginings that describe an atmosphere constantly shifting between sumptuously learned experiences, erotic adventure, and dry humor.

The hero and guiding force of this epic fantasy is an insomniac young man who, unable to sleep, guides the reader through the narrow streets of Cairo-a mysterious city full of deceit and trickery. (Feb.A cult classic that “combines the genres of travelogue, fable, dream narrative, novel and confessional into one beguiling whole” ( Publishers Weekly ). A work of fiction with the subtle, intoxicating architecture of a poem, this cult favorite clearly deserves renewed exposure and consideration.

There are plenty of moments when the story becomes too confusing to follow-but this is clearly part of the plan. Moving gracefully through a boggling number of reversals, stories-within-stories, and false solutions, the narrative winds its way toward a conclusion as baffling and profound as everything that has preceded it. Every attempt Balian makes to leave the city is foiled, as one supposedly well-intentioned figure after another leads him into the ever-deepening maze of the city's underworld, populated by whores, laughing dervishes, talking apes and lepers who all weave their respective spells with distinct power. A mysterious figure named the Father of the Cats claims to want to help Balian-but does he? To make matters worse, there are rumors that a vicious murderer is on the loose in Cairo. He is even more surprised when he is afflicted by the 'Arabian Nightmare': he begins to have very confusing dreams and wakes up bleeding from the nose and mouth. Balian, an English spy hired by France to go on a fact-finding mission to Cairo in 1486, is surprised when one of his fellow travelers is kidnapped. Irwin's reissued 1983 classic combines the genres of travelogue, fable, dream narrative, novel and confessional into one beguiling whole.

The Arabian Nightmare by Robert Irwin