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King: An Epic Novel by Riad Nourallah from Quartet Books 

 

 

A prince in pre-Islamic Arabia must 

leave his carefree life to avenge the 

murder of his father by a rival Arab 

tribe allied to Persia. Betrayed from 

within and without, he travels to 

Constantinople, the ‘New Rome’, 

where, at the imperial court of 

Justinian and Theodora, he pleads for 

political and military support 

 

Presenting a wide spectrum of settings and 

characters, this epic novel addresses issues like war 

and peace, tyranny and freedom, and the clash and 

reconciliation of cultures and faiths; but it is also a 

very bold and uninhibited celebration of life and the 

joys and challenges of the physical world and human 

relationships. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Riad Nourallah is Director of Research 

at the London Academy of Diplomacy, 

University of East Anglia. He has an 

MA in English Literature from the 

American University of Beirut and a 

PhD from the University of 

Cambridge. He has taught at the 

American University of Beirut and the 

universities of Cambridge, Salford, the 

United Arab Emirates, Durham, and 

Westminster. His book, The Death of 

Almustafa, is also published by 

Quartet Books. 

 

From the author 

of The Death of 

Almustafa ( ISBN 

9780704372115 ), 

where the hero of 

Gibran’s The 

Prophet lives 

again... 

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