Set in the Syrian neighborhood of al-Qaweyq, “Sour Grapes” is a collection of fifty-nine wry, satirical short stories loosely connected by a cast of rotating characters living at society's margins. Tamer captures their everyday lives, weaving the attendant cruelties and ironies of living under an oppressive regime with the residents' irreverence and small acts of defiance. Inspired by the heroines of Arab mythology, the women of al-Qaweyq navigate the patriarchal community with brash confidence and dark humor while the younger generation of children inherit a bitter cynicism from their fathers. Evoking under-ripened and immature fruit, the collection's title serves as a bittersweet metaphor for a world that possesses the seeds of change but is unprepared for the harvest.
"Well crafted, richly imagined and full of vitality. Tamer's colourful cast includes convicts, rogues, officials, singers and squabbling lovers"
Malcolm Forbes
"Tamer offers few of the usual lazy satisfactions of neighborhood/small-town-fiction but still offers a well-formed world (and world-view) that is consistently (if often also disturbingly) compelling.A solid collection, in comfortably bite-sized pieces."
