In this incendiary novel, Rabih Alameddine tells the story of Jacob, a Yemeni-born poet, as he revisits the events of his life, from his maternal upbringing in an Egyptian whorehouse to his adolescence under the aegis of his wealthy father and his life as a gay Arab man in San Francisco during the height of the AIDS plague.

Hovered over by the presence of alluring, sassy Satan who taunts Jacob to remember his painful past and dour, frigid Death who urges him to forget and give up on life, Jacob is also attended to by fourteen saints.

Set over the course of one night in the waiting room of a psych clinic, The Angel of History is a hilarious and heartbreaking struggle to remember and forget the events of an astonishing life. (From the publisher)

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