Al Jazeera - the novel?

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Al Jazeera - The novel? Publishers of Amis, Rushdie, McEwan, Murakami,
Saramago, Ackroyd, Tremain and Theroux praise former Al Jazeera
journalist, Afshin Rattansi, for new collection of novels published in
one volume under the title "The Dream of the Decade".

EMBARGOED UNTIL 16 JANUARY 2006
Published by Booksurge, ISBN 1-4196-1686-2

For the first time, a journalist from Al Jazeera has published a work
of fiction - though the Arabic TV station's detractors might have it
another way. The Dream of the Decade - a quartet of novels - is out
in one volume published by U.S. publisher, Booksurge. It's a big tome
that charts the lives of Londoners when the gaps between rich and poor
are inexorably rising, even as the lives of the rich are becoming
fabulously wealthy.

Released on 1 February 2006, it treats the fear and loathing of
terrorism only in one novel, head on, in an account of Londoners
trapped in a bar during a bombscare. Though there is no mention of Al
Qaeda, it is the background of the author that makes one think that
the fear is post 9/11.

The book itself is praised by Dan Franklin, publisher of Martin Amis,
Salman Rushdie and Ian McEwan who says that Rattansi "captures the
atmosphere of the late 1980s." Christopher MacLehose, the publisher of
Richard Ford, Haruki Murakami, Georges Perec and Jos?? Saramago, said
that he could still feel the force of "The Dream of the Decade."

It's no wonder as the ambitions of the novels are large. The first and
title novel charts the downfall of a stereotypical
working-class-made-good-under-Thatcher yuppie as he begins to learn
what British society lost as it gained. The third is about Londoners'
- and even Los Angeles-residents' - perplexing relationship with
property. The final novel, entitled, "Good Morning, Britain" examines
the travails of an ingenue at a big television station, learning and
prospering as he produces news for the populace. It should be noted
that Rattansi produced for the BBC's Today programme which was caught
up in the Weapons of Mass Destruction fiasco when Andrew Gilligan
reported that the British government has "sexed up" a dossier to
persuade the UK parliament to vote for the Iraq War.

Rattansi worked on Al Jazeera's flagship programme, "Top Secret" and
given the Arabic language station's ability to source material where
no media outlet has contacts, one can only imagine what assignments
the author must have undertaken. He won a Sony Award for his
outstanding contribution to media in 2002, shortly after setting up an
international 24 hour news station in the Middle East. The quartet
begins with a reflection by one of the female characters in the book,
the love of the first novel's protaganist, as she holidays in the
Maldives ahead of the Asian Tsunami. It is when you imagine the scope
of such a book, its themes, its politics and its emotional range
allied to the quality of writing which impressed so many of Britain's
arbiters of literary prowess, that you begin to understand what an
event publication of "The Dream of the Decade - The London Novels"
really is.

Selected Quotes

"I can still feel the force of it, as a passing gale" Christopher
MacLehose, Collins Harvill.
"I admired it, particularly the pace and atmosphere." Christopher
Sinclair-Stevenson, Sinclair Stevenson Ltd.
"He captures the atmosphere of the late 80s." Dan Franklin, Martin
Secker and Warburg.
"Interesting and involving." Laura Longrigg, William Heinemann Ltd.


Title: The Dream of the Decade
Subtitle: The London Novels
Author: Afshin Rattansi
ISBN: 1-4196-1686-2
LCCN: 2005909384
Category: Fiction
Length: 622 pages
Retail Price: $21.95
Binding: 5.25" x 8" trade paperback
Illustrations: Line Art and Photographs