Sandstorms: Days and Nights in Arabia

Peter Theroux's fascination with the Arab culture goes back to his student days, when he won a fellowship to study in Cairo. Drawn initially to the Middle East by the West's romantic notions of it, Theroux stayed on, learning the language and eventually reporting on the region from his base in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In Sandstorms he debunks some of the West's most cherished myths about the Arab world, at the same time putting a human face on a region long misunderstood.

As Theroux mentions in his preface, much of his time in the Middle East was spent researching the 1978 disappearance of a Lebanese imam, Moussa Sadr. By the end of Sandstorms, Theroux has still not solved the riddle, but he has painted a remarkable portrait of the times, the people, and the politics of that volatile region.