Salim Bachi's The New Adventures of Sinbad the Sailor offers a new perspective on the Western and Arabic worlds through the eyes of an Algerian writer who straddles East and West, and an allegory for pre Arab Spring Algeria. One Thousand and One Nights's Sinbad the Sailor is reborn as a young, adventurous man in modern day Algeria, who has joined the waves of North African immigration into Europe. Accompanied by a mysterious mongrel and his Senegalese friend Robinson, this lover of women and beauty embarks on a journey around the Mediterranean from Algiers to Damascus, passing through Rome, Paris, Baghdad, through the refugee camps and the deceitful glimmer of the Western world that takes him on a headlong pursuit of happiness and love. It is the story of a man coming to grips with the stark realities of war within the framework of legend. Salim Bachi's New Adventures of Sinbad the Sailor is translated from the French by Sue Rose and published by Pushkin Press
