In 1980s Russia, Soviet policies, cruel but familiar, are giving way to untested concepts such as glasnost and perestroika. Four teenagers - Anya, Milka, Petya and Aleksey - yearn for a world of Levi's, Queen, foreign travel and the freedom to choose their fates. Instead, like their ancestors, they encounter heartbreak and tragedy.
The lives of six characters entwine in contemporary Los Angeles in a spellbinding thriller: a 2017 LA Times Best Fiction Pick and NPR Best Book of the Year. Wonder Valley is a swirling mix of angst, violence, heartache, and yearning-a masterpiece of L.A. noir by a writer leading a new vanguard of crime fiction.
Inspired by One Thousand and One Nights, Ahmad Danny Ramadan's innovative and poetic debut novel tells the story of two lovers anchored to the memory of a dying Syria. One is a Hakawati, the storyteller, keeping life in forward motion by relaying remembered fables and incidents from their youth to his dying partner.