{"id":5472,"date":"2021-10-25T00:00:46","date_gmt":"2021-10-24T22:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/?p=5472"},"modified":"2021-10-25T00:00:46","modified_gmt":"2021-10-24T22:00:46","slug":"omar-el-akkad-on-his-second-novel-what-strange-paradise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/omar-el-akkad-on-his-second-novel-what-strange-paradise\/","title":{"rendered":"Omar El Akkad on his second novel &#8220;What Strange Paradise&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/manage\/videos\/638422538\">https:\/\/vimeo.com\/manage\/videos\/638422538<\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"TMR Omar El Akkad on &amp;quot;What Strange Paradise&amp;quot; Sept 2021.mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/638422538?h=06cc34c9d9&amp;dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/manage\/videos\/638422538\">https:\/\/vimeo.com\/manage\/videos\/638422538<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rana Asfour<\/strong>, Book Editor at The Markaz Review, and the TMR Bookgroup talk to author Omar El Akkad about his second novel <em>What Strange Paradise<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Omar El Akkad is an author and journalist. He was born in Egypt, grew up in Qatar, moved to Canada as a teenager and now lives in the United States. The start of his journalism career coincided with the start of the war on terror, and over the following decade he reported from Afghanistan, Guant\u00e1namo Bay and many other locations around the world. His fiction and non-fiction writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, Guernica, GQ and many other newspapers and magazines. His debut novel, <em>American War<\/em>, is an international bestseller and has been translated into thirteen languages. It was named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR and several other publications. It was also selected by the BBC as one of 100 novels that changed our world. His new novel, <em>What Strange Paradise<\/em>, was released in July, 2021 and is longlisted for the Giller Prize. Find him on Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/omarelakkad\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@omarelakkad<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rana Asfour, Book Editor at The Markaz Review, and the TMR Bookgroup talk to author Omar El Akkad about his second novel What Strange Paradise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":5476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,22,51],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2165],"class_list":["post-5472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","category-interview","category-tmr-weekly","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.8 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Omar El Akkad on his second novel &quot;What Strange Paradise&quot; - The Markaz Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/omar-el-akkad-on-his-second-novel-what-strange-paradise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Omar El Akkad on his second novel &quot;What Strange Paradise&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rana Asfour, Book Editor at The Markaz Review, and the TMR Bookgroup talk to author Omar El Akkad about his second novel What Strange Paradise.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/omar-el-akkad-on-his-second-novel-what-strange-paradise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Markaz Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-10-24T22:00:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/omar-el-akkad-what-strange-paradise-banner.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"624\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"TMR\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/omar-el-akkad-on-his-second-novel-what-strange-paradise\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/omar-el-akkad-on-his-second-novel-what-strange-paradise\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Omar El Akkad on his second novel &#8220;What Strange Paradise&#8221;\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-24T22:00:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/omar-el-akkad-on-his-second-novel-what-strange-paradise\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":220,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/omar-el-akkad-on-his-second-novel-what-strange-paradise\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/10\\\/omar-el-akkad-what-strange-paradise-banner.gif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Fiction\",\"Interviews\",\"TMR Weekly\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/omar-el-akkad-on-his-second-novel-what-strange-paradise\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/omar-el-akkad-on-his-second-novel-what-strange-paradise\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/omar-el-akkad-on-his-second-novel-what-strange-paradise\\\/\",\"name\":\"Omar El Akkad on his second novel \\\"What Strange Paradise\\\" - 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