Since the 1990s, contemporary art in the Arab world has experienced exponential growth and numerous changes. With the appearance of artists from the region in international exhibitions, the dynamics within the art scenes changed significantly. Museums & art foundations began to collect, biennials were launched, contemporary art galleries, fairs, residencies and schools emerged in many countries, and the governments of the Gulf states launched megaprojects. This reader serves as a guide for...

Secrets hide behind those peacefully shuttered windows...Deception awaits around the next curve in the road. Rumors spread over garden hedges, fishing ponds, and knitting circles. Neighborhood cats discover a boneyard.And when Death strolls through the tranquil countryside or checks into the quaint village inn for the weekend, it's the intrepid - and often accidental - investigators who must find and decipher clues, unravel mysteries, and bring the killer to justice.

"Das Gesicht im Spiegel, das mich da täglich anschaut, bin nicht ich – und bin es doch –, aber will es nicht sein. Will es nicht wahr haben, nicht eingestehen. Blass, eingefallen, von Falten und Altersflecken gezeichnet. Mit angeschwollenen Tränensäcken und stoppeligem spärlich wachsendem Bart. Mit einzelnen strähnigen Haaren, die mir schneeweiß auf die hohe Stirn fallen. Nur die Augen verraten mich und ihn. Verraten mir, dass er ich bin." Als Salomon sich nicht nur mit seinem Gesicht, son...

Ben, a young slave, uses every chance he gets to teach himself to read, practicing with the words he sees on street signs and in shop windows and even in cast-off newspapers he finds in the gutter.But after the Civil War breaks out, his master leaves town and Ben finds himself in a slave prison. One night, the prisoners bribe a guard to get their hands on a newspaper, and to the applause of his fellow slaves, Ben reads aloud the momentous news of Mr. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamat...