<p>"This engaging collection of essays by Kermani… examines topics ranging from 10th-century poetic convention to modern-day extremist attacks in an expertly crafted critique of the East-West paradigm that often dominates contemporary discussions of immigration, globalism, and the preservation of ethnic and national identities... [It] will be a worthwhile read for anyone who is interested in better understanding the intellectual ties that bridge a social and cultural division that is popularly conceived as being thousands of years wide."<br />—<i><b>Publisher's Weekly</b></i></p> <p>"The moral power behind Kermani’s extraordinary achievements is scarcely paralleled among all the great figures of German literature."<br />—<i><b>Süddeutsche Zeitung</b></i></p> <p>"Through his work Kermani shows us the challenges facing the critical mind today and what it can achieve."<br />—<i><b>Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung</b></i></p> <p>"As one of its best-known intellectuals, Kermani represents the new Germany."<br />—<i><b>Der Spiegel</b></i></p> <p>"Kermani is living proof that, even in the generation after Walser and Habermas, the intellectual has not become obsolete as a public figure. He also attests to the source of this vitality, which comes both from education and from an active participation in the world that he observes."<br />—<i><b>Die Zeit</b></i></p> <p>"In the end, Kermani's exquisite book is marked by a refusal of the fundamentalist’s temptation to let Islam's dogma eclipse its aesthetic permeability, and a refusal to let taut entanglements slacken into cultural amnesia. Taken together, these essays give texture to the tapestry of affinities that weaves together the two poles of his heritage — and, perhaps, of ours."<br />—<i><b>LA Review of Books</b></i></p>