Between Quran and Kafka

"This engaging collection of essays by Kermani… examines topics ranging from 10th-century poetic convention to modern-day extremist attacks in an expertly crafted critique of the East-West paradigm that often dominates contemporary discussions of immigration, globalism, and the preservation of ethnic and national identities... [It] will be a worthwhile read for anyone who is interested in better understanding the intellectual ties that bridge a social and cultural division that is popularly conceived as being thousands of years wide."
—Publisher's Weekly

"The moral power behind Kermani’s extraordinary achievements is scarcely paralleled among all the great figures of German literature."
—Süddeutsche Zeitung

"Through his work Kermani shows us the challenges facing the critical mind today and what it can achieve."
—Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

"As one of its best-known intellectuals, Kermani represents the new Germany."
—Der Spiegel

"Kermani is living proof that, even in the generation after Walser and Habermas, the intellectual has not become obsolete as a public figure. He also attests to the source of this vitality, which comes both from education and from an active participation in the world that he observes."
—Die Zeit

"In the end, Kermani's exquisite book is marked by a refusal of the fundamentalist’s temptation to let Islam's dogma eclipse its aesthetic permeability, and a refusal to let taut entanglements slacken into cultural amnesia. Taken together, these essays give texture to the tapestry of affinities that weaves together the two poles of his heritage — and, perhaps, of ours."
—LA Review of Books