IMANZI Press is a Rwandan publishing house established in 2017 and has published more than 20 children's books in Kinyarwanda and has translated them into English and French. The publishing house has worked with partners like World Vision International and the Rwandan government. IMANZI Press is planning to publish eight children’s books during this year and is working on a cartoon project, that is a challenging entrepreneurship in Rwanda.
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Iman Publication publishes relaxing reading material in addition to building and shaping the generation of Ahsanu Taqwim through the civilization of knowledge. Among the lineup of great writers and books we have successfully published are Street Architects, Street Painters, Hiatus, Esc., The Life I Chose and many more!
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‘In the Footsteps of Enayat Al-Zayyat’ is a book that traces the life of an unknown Egyptian writer who died in 1963, four years before the release of her only novel. The book does not follow a traditional style to present the biography of Al-Zayyat, or to restore consideration for a writer who was denied her rights. Mersal refuses to present a single story as if it is the truth and refuses to speak on behalf of the heroine or deal with her as a victim, but rather takes us on a journey to search for the individuality that is often marginalised in Arab societies. The book searches for a young woman whose family burned all her personal documents, including the draft of her second novel, and was completely absent in the collective archives. The narration derives its uniqueness from its ability to combine different literary genres such as fictional narration, academic research, investigation, readings, interviews, fiction, and fragments of the autobiography of the author of the novel. The book deals with the differences between the individuality of Enayat, who was born into an aristocratic family, graduated from a German school and wrote her narration during the domination of the speeches of the Nasserism period, and that of Mersal, a middle-class woman who formed her consciousness in the 1990s and achieved some of what Enayat dreamed of achieving but remained haunted by her tragedy. The book deals with important political, social and cultural issues, as we read the history of psychiatry in modern Egypt through the pills that Enayat swallowed to end her life on 3 January 1963, while her divorce summarises the continuing suffering of women with the Personal Status Law. We also see how the disappearance of a small square from her neighbourhood reveals the relationship between modernity and bureaucracy, and how the geography of Cairo changes, obliterated as the result of changes in political regimes. In the library of the German Archaeological Institute, where Enayat worked, we find an unwritten history of World War II and, in her unpublished second novel, we see unknown stories of German scientists fleeing Nazism to Cairo. We also see how Enayat’s neglected tomb reveals the life story of her great-grandfather, Ahmed Rashid Pasha, and the disasters buried in the genealogy tree.
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Adopting the story-within-a-story structure of Arabian Nights, author Osama Alaysa weaves together a collection of stories portraying centuries of oppression endured by the Palestinian people. This remarkable novel eloquently brings together fictional characters alongside real-life historical figures in a complex portrayal of Bethlehem and the Dheisheh Refugee Camp in the West Bank. The common thread connecting each tale is madness, in all its manifestations. Psychological madness, in the sense of clinical mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, finds expression alongside acts of social and political madness. Together, these accounts of individuals and communities provide a gateway into the histories of the city of Bethlehem and Palestine. They paint a picture of the centuries of political oppression that the Palestinian people have endured, from the days of the Ottoman Empire to the years following the Oslo Accords, and all the way to 2012 (when the novel was written). The novel is divided into three sections, each containing multiple narratives. The first section, “The Book of a Genesis,” describes the physical spaces and origins of Bethlehem and Dheisheh Refugee Camp. These stories span the 19th and 20th centuries, transitioning smoothly from one tale to another to offer an intricate interpretation of the identity of these places. The second section, “The Book of the People Without a Book”, follows parallel narratives of the lives of the patients in a psychiatric hospital in Bethlehem, the mad men and women roaming the streets of the city, and those imprisoned by the Israeli authorities. All suffer abuse, but they also reaffirm their humanity through the relationships, romantic and otherwise, that they form. The third and final section, “An Ephemeral Book,” follows individuals—Palestinian and non-Palestinian—who are afflicted by madness following the Oslo Accords in 1993. These stories give voice to the perspectives of the long-marginalized Palestinian population, narrating the loss of land and the accompanying loss of sanity in the decades of despair and violence that followed the Nakba, the 1948 eviction of some 700,000 Palestinians from their homes. The novel’s mad characters—politicians, presidents, doctors, intellectuals, ordinary people and, yes, Dheisheh and Bethlehem themselves—burst out of their narrative threads, flowing from one story into the next. Alaysa’s crisp, lucid prose and deft storytelling chart a clear path through the chaos with dark humor and wit. The result is an important contribution to fiction on the Palestinian crisis that approaches the Palestinians, madness, and Palestinian spaces with compassion and depth.
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Kuwaiti children’s book author Lateefa Buti’s well-crafted and beautifully illustrated children’s book, Hatless, encourages children (ages 6-9) to think independently and challenge rigid traditions and fixed rituals with innovation and creativity. The main character is a young girl named Hatless who lives in the City of Hats. Here, all of the people are born with hats that cover their heads and faces. The world inside of their hats is dark, silent, and odorless. Hatless feels trapped underneath her own hat. She wants to take off her hat, but she is afraid, until she realizes that whatever frightening things exist in the world around her are there whether or not she takes off her hat to see them. So Hatless removes her hat. As Hatless takes in the beauty of her surroundings, she cannot help but talk about what she sees, hears, and smells. The other inhabitants of the city ostracize her because she has become different from them. It is not long before they ask her to leave the City of Hats. Rather than giving up or getting angry, Hatless feels sad for her friends and neighbors who are afraid to experience the world outside of their hats. She comes up with an ingenious solution: if given another chance, she will wear a hat as long it is one she makes herself. The people of the City of Hats agree, so Hatless weaves a hat that covers her head and face but does not prevent her from seeing the outside world. She offers to loan the hat to the other inhabitants of the city. One by one, they try it on and are enchanted by the beautiful world around them. Since then, no child has been born wearing a hat. The people celebrate by tossing their old hats in the air. By bravely embracing these values, Hatless improves her own life and the lives of her fellow citizens. Buti’s language is eloquent and clear. She strikes a skilled narrative balance between revealing Hatless’s inner thoughts and letting the story unfold through her interactions with other characters. Careful descriptions are accompanied by beautiful illustrations that reward multiple readings of the book.
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In his first YA novel, cultural journalist and author Abdo Wazen writes about a blind teenager in Lebanon who finds strength and friendship among an unlikely group. Growing up in a small Lebanese village, Bassim’s blindness limits his engagement with the materials taught in his schools. Despite his family’s love and support, his opportunities seem limited. So at thirteen years old, Bassim leaves his village to join the Institute for the Blind in a Beirut suburb. There, he comes alive. He learns Braille and discovers talents he didn’t know he had. Bassim is empowered by his newfound abilities to read and write. Thanks to his newly developed self-confidence, Bassim decides to take a risk and submit a short story to a competition sponsored by the Ministry of Education. After winning the competition, he is hired to work at the Institute for the Blind. At the Institute, Bassim, a Sunni Muslim, forms a strong friendship with George, a Christian. Cooperation and collective support are central to the success of each student at the Institute, a principle that overcomes religious differences. In the book, the Institute comes to symbolize the positive changes that tolerance can bring to the country and society at large. The Boy Who Saw the Color of Air is also a book about Lebanon and its treatment of people with disabilities. It offers insight into the vital role of strong family support in individual success, the internal functioning of institutions like the Institute, as well as the unique religious and cultural environment of Beirut. Wazen’s lucid language and the linear structure he employs result in a coherent and easy-to-read narrative. The Boy Who Saw the Color of Air is an important contribution to a literature in which people with disabilities are underrepresented. In addition to offering a story of empowerment and friendship, this book also aims to educate readers about people with disabilities and shed light on the indispensable roles played by institutions like the Institute.
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Inspired by the life story of Palestinian artist, Tamam Al-Akhal, The Lilac Girl is the sixth book for younger readers by award-winning author, Ibtisam Barakat. The Lilac Girl is a beautifully illustrated short story relating the departure of Palestinian artist and educator, Tamam Al-Akhal, from her homeland, Jaffa. It portrays Tamam as a young girl who dreams about returning to her home, which she has been away from for 70 years, since the Palestinian exodus. Tamam discovers that she is talented in drawing, so she uses her imagination to draw her house in her mind. She decides one night to visit it, only to find another girl there, who won’t allow her inside and shuts the door in her face. Engulfed in sadness, Tamam sits outside and starts drawing her house on a piece of paper. As she does so, she notices that the colors of her house have escaped and followed her; the girl attempts to return the colors but in vain. Soon the house becomes pale and dull, like the nondescript hues of bare trees in the winter. Upon Tamam’s departure, she leaves the entire place drenched in the color of lilac. As a children’s story, The Lilac Girl works on multiple levels, educating with its heart-rending narrative but without preaching, accurately expressing the way Palestinians must have felt by not being allowed to return to their homeland. As the story’s central character, Tamam succeeds on certain levels in defeating the occupying forces and intruders through her yearning, which is made manifest through the power of imaginary artistic expression. In her mind she draws and paints a picture of hope, with colors escaping the physical realm of her former family abode, showing that they belong, not to the invaders, but the rightful occupiers of that dwelling. Far from being the only person to have lost their home and endured tremendous suffering, Tamam’s plight is representative of millions of people both then and now, emphasizing the notion that memories of our homeland live with us for eternity, no matter how far we are from them in a physical sense. The yearning to return home never subsides, never lessens with the passing of time but, with artistic expression, it is possible to find freedom and create beauty out of pain.
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An egg has hatched, and what comes out of it? A chicken? No. A turtle? No. It’s a dinosaur. But where is his family? The little dinosaur searches the animal kingdom for someone who looks like him and settles on the giraffe. In this picture book by educator and author Hessa Al Muhairi, with illustrations by Sura Ghazwan, a dinosaur sets out in search of animals like him. He finds plenty of animals, but none that look the same...until he meets the giraffe. This story explores identity and belonging and teaches children about accepting differences in carefully crafted language.
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On a nice fall day of 1988, Zakiya Zaghwani was found lying dead at the edge of the desert, giving way to a quest to discover the circumstances surrounding her death. While looking for whoever was involved in the death of the young singer, nearby residents discover bit by bit their involvement in many things other than the crime itself. ///The story takes place in a town near the desert. And as with Khatibi’s previous novels, this one is also marked by a tight plot, revolving around the murder of a singer who works in a hotel. This sets off a series of complex investigations that defy easy conclusions and invite doubt about the involvement of more than one character. /// Through the narrators of the novel, who also happen to be its protagonists, the author delves into the history of colonialism and the Algerian War of Independence and its successors, describing the circumstances of the story whose events unfold throughout the month. As such, the characters suspected of killing the singer are not only accused of a criminal offense, but are also concerned, as it appears, with the great legacy that the War of Independence left, from different aspects.///The novel looks back at a critical period in the modern history of Algeria that witnessed the largest socio-political crisis following its independence in 1988. While the story avoids the immediate circumstances of the war, it rather invokes the events leading up to it and tracks its impact on the social life, while capturing the daily life of vulnerable and marginalized groups. /// Nonetheless, those residents’ vulnerability does not necessarily mean they are innocent. As it appears, they are all involved in a crime that is laden with symbolism and hints at the status of women in a society shackled by a heavy legacy of a violent, wounded masculinity. This approach to addressing social issues reflects a longing to break loose from the stereotypical discourse that sets heroism in a pre-defined mold and reduces the truth to only one of its dimensions.
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Hassan, who had lost his twin brother, best friend and partner-in-crime — Hussin — during teenagers due to cancer. Hassan then further studies medicine and makes friends with Amy and Nieza; and become best friends. Hassan — loves to joke around, tease his friends and coworkers a lot, a gentleman to the point people called him Dr Charmer, and very protective towards his friends especially Amy and Nieza. If a man wants to approach Amy and Nieza, he has to go through Hassan first! Beneath those witty personalities, Hassan was actually struggling in handling his inner turmoil when it comes to grieving and sadness. When his friend and his teenage patient passed away, Hassan was again at a loss. He always thought that he needed to be strong for his parents after Hussin passed away — he stopped crying, he stopped expressing his grief, he just ignored the pain. But then he learn, being strong does not mean one should suppress and dismiss his feelings.
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“Inspiration from the story of Moses who built courage to face Pharaoh” Farah has a mission. Farah wanted to sell chocolate cakes and donate money for sale to orphan homes. But the mission is more complicated than Farah imagined. Farah doesn’t feel like he can. Did Farah manage to sell all of his cakes? This story about Farah learning to be brave from the tale of Moses A.S!
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“Inspiration from the story of Prophet Noah AS that the unbelieving people were struck when they built the boat.” Farhan wants to build a small cottage to protect ants from rain. Farhan did a lot of efforts, but always failed. Worse, Farhan was laughed at by other children for his strange ideas. Farhan always think that he cannot manage to build a cottage for ants. Let’s follow the story of Farhan who learned to not to give-uo from the stories of Prophet Noah.
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“Inspiration from the story of the Prophet Adam who begged forgiveness from God when he ate the fruit of the khuldi tree in heaven.” Farhan is busy building a castle for Farah using his toys. When Farah falls because of Farhan’s fading toys, Farhan is silent. Until then, the palace collapsed and broke Farah’s clothes. Naturally! What should Farhan do? Let’s follow the story of Farhan learning to apologize from the tale of the Prophet Adam.
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A disruptive guide to help women reject societal double standards and succeed by showing up as their authentic, vulnerable, powerful selves. We’ve all heard of the “glass ceiling” for women. Yet even for women who break through the societal barriers to success, there’s another danger: the glass ledge. “When the very qualities that help us achieve greatness turn into self-defeating behaviors, that’s when we trip over the glass ledge,” teaches Iman Oubou. With The Glass Ledge, Oubou offers a disruptive guide that explores the ten most common themes around which women tend to derail themselves. Each chapter focuses on one of these self-sabotaging themes, incorporating counterintuitive and eye-opening information, as well as anecdotes from the author's personal journey, stories from other high-profile, successful women, and scientific research about why we act the way we do. This is a practical and inspired call for any woman who wants to rewrite the narrative of success—and pay her efforts forward into the world.
The gripping, thought-provoking stories in Yxta Maya Murray’s latest collection find their inspiration in the headlines. Here, ordinary people negotiate tentative paths through wildfire, mass shootings, bureaucratic incompetence, and heedless government policies with vicious impacts on the innocent and helpless. A nurse volunteers to serve in catastrophe-stricken Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and discovers that her skill and compassion are useless in the face of stubborn governmental inertia. An Environmental Protection Agency employee, whose agricultural-worker parents died after long exposure to a deadly pesticide, finds herself forced to find justifications for reversing regulations that had earlier banned the chemical. A Department of Education employee in a dystopic future America visits a highly praised charter school and discovers the horrific consequences of academic failure. A transgender trainer of beauty pageant contestants takes on a beautiful Latina for the Miss USA pageant and brings her to perfection and the brink of victory, only to discover that she has a fatal secret.The characters in these stories grapple with the consequences of frightening attitudes and policies pervasive in the United States today. The stories explore not only our distressing human capacity for moral numbness in the face of evil, but also reveal our surprising stores of compassion and forgiveness. These brilliantly conceived and beautifully written stories are troubling yet irresistible mirrors of our time.
We are Figments of God's Imagination... A breath-taking and innovative novel about contemporary Iran and its revolution WHITE RED is a narrative of people whose destinies become intertwined in January 1980 in the chaotic post-revolutionary Tehran. The main character of the novel, who’s the juncture of all incidents, is a thirty-three-year-old Kyokushin practitioner who should fight fifteen battles for the black belt: an average clerk of the statistics office with his ordinary life, his loneliness after being abandoned by his fiancé for no reason, and his interest in literature leading him to write a few corny romantic books ignored by everyone, and with his chronic disease, has now put all his effort into the fight for earning the black belt which is all he’s got now. In each of these brief yet severe battles a particular clue directs the narration to a snowy day in 1980 Tehran. Every one of them opens the gate to bizarre happenings taking place in the context of actual historical events; happenings that both astonish and shock us. A mixture of reality and writer’s fantasy opens the door to the lives of people each disclosing a mysterious history: The secret life of Guita, an ambitious superstar in the pre-revolution cinema of Iran where her bold roles result in the anger of the extremists after the revolution; the fears and hardships of a Greek priest who’s in charge of returning the nuns to Europe after the revolution; an old Jew who intends to purify his blood even by going into a pool full of leeches; the internal battle of a religious old woman for adopting the bastard sons of two dead members of the Mujahedin; a poor balloon seller whose wishes are realized overnight due to people’s superstitious beliefs; and the last Iranian ambassador in Dublin who’s forced to hide the first Pahlavi king’s bones so that the revolutionaries won’t be able to lay a hand on them.
Meet the gang and learn about ASEAN’s ten member countries. A comprehensive look at ASEAN for young readers. Uan is preparing for a quiz show on ASEAN. He wants to take home the top prize. Readers will follow Uan on his journey and learn about the cultural heritage and national costumes of ASEAN countries.
For five years, Australian doctor Sofia Raso has lived in Kabul’s vibrant Shaahir Square, working with Dr Jabril Aziz to support the local women. She knows that living peacefully in Kabul requires following two simple rules: keep a low profile; and keep out of local affairs. Yet when threatening night letters from the Taliban taunt the town, and young boys disappear from Jamal Mina, Kabul’s largest slum, Sofia can no longer remain silent. While the square is encased by fear, an elegant former warlord proves an unlikely ally, and a former lover re-emerges with a warning. As the search for the boys intensifies, and Sofia feels herself being drawn back into a love affair she thought had ended, it soon becomes clear that answers will bring a heavy price. Gripping and evocative, The Night Letters takes you to the heart of Kabul in a story of secrets, friendship and love in all its imperfect guises.
Muslims have lived in the New World for over 500 years, before Protestantism even existed, but their contributions were erased by revisionists and ignorance. In this colorful alternative history o f the Americas, we meet the enslaved and indentured Muslims who changed the course of history, the immigrants who advanced the Space Race and automotive revolution, the visionaries who spearheaded civil rights movements, and the 21st-century Americans shifting the political landscape while struggling for acceptance both within and outside their mosques. In search of these forgotten stories, Mouallem traveled 7,000 miles, from the northwest tip of Brazil to the southeast edge of the Arctic, to visit thirteen pivotal mosques. What he discovers is a population as diverse and conflicted as you’d find in any other house of worship, and deeply misunderstood. Parallel to the author’s geographical journey is a personal one. A child of immigrants, Mouallem discovers that, just as the greater legacy of Western Islam was lost on him, so were the stories of prior generations in his family. An atheist since the 9/11 attacks, Mouallem reconsiders Islam and his place within it. Meanwhile, as the rise of hate groups threaten the liberties of Muslims in the West, ideologues from the East try to suppress their liberalism. With pressures to assimilate coming from all sides, will Muslims of the Americas ever be free to worship on their own terms?
A blogger becomes inspired by a friend's troubled marriage in this relationship guide. While working in Arizona, La-Paz (Why Do Married Men Cheat with Unattractive Women? 2011, etc.), a five -foot seven-inch black woman who had to watch my weight continuously to fit the bill as a print model,: met blonde, "regal" Judie on a photo shoot. Although Judie "had graced the cover of numerous high-end magazines," she was desperately unhappy, having recently discovered that her photographer husband was cheating on her with an unattractive fast food worker. Judie's angry pal Jessie encouraged La-Paz to write a book about this phenomenon--men having affairs with women less attractive than their wives--which led to La-Paz meeting Judie's soon-to-be ex and his girlfriend. She also gathered together a focus group of "seasoned women who have overcome every aspect of a challenging marriage" and created a blog in which other people could sound off about infidelity. In this book, La-Paz shares highlights of these meetings and submissions; she also weaves in the relationship challenges of her own girlfriends and the women in her Bible study group. She wraps up by sharing Judie's 40-day journal, revealing the model's post -divorce journey to greater self-love and a new, happier relationship.
