The Sand Cafe

Neil MacFarquhar wrote The Sand Cafe after the first gulf war, but this inside look at the life of a foreign correspondent in the Middle East sounds like it could have easily been set in the second conflict as well, judging by the current complaints from journalists. The novel quite clearly shows the culture divide between the U.S. and the Middle East, in a way that is both funny and sad. I could have done with less of the romantic angle of the novel, though, as the bits about the clash of cultures and the journalistic process were more than interesting enough to fill a book.