Intolerable

Kamal Al-Solaylee's father was one of the wealthiest property owners in Aden, in the south of Yemen, but when the country shrugged off its colonial roots, his properties were confiscated and the family of twelve was forced to leave. They moved first to Beirut and then to Cairo, but after a few peaceful years even this safe haven struggled under a new wave of violence and Islamic extremism. The family returned to Yemen, a country that was by then culturally isolated from the rest of the world. As a gay man living in an intolerant country, Kamal found himself with few choices for survival. Caught between the cultural and religious changes in the Middle East and the allure of the West, Al-Solaylee escaped first to England and eventually to Canada, where he became a prominent journalist and academic. Part memoir of an Arab family trapped in the turmoil of Middle Eastern politics, part personal coming-out narrative and part cultural analysis, Intolerable is a story of the modern Middle East, in all its irreconcilable differences, seen through a unique lens.