Personified animals (snakes, wolves, sheep), natural things (a swamp, a lake, a rainbow, trees), mankind’s creations (trucks, swords, zeroes) are all characters in The Teeth of the Comb. They aspire, they plot, they hope, they destroy, they fail, they love. These wonderful small stories animate new realities and make us see our reality anew. Reading Alomar’s sly moral fables and sharp political allegories, the reader always sits up a little straighter, and a little wiser.

Osama Alomar was born in Damascus, Syria, in 1968, and lives in Pittsburgh. He is the author of four acclaimed collections in Arabic and performs as a musician. Mythili Rao is a producer at The New Yorker Radio Hour. Her book reviews and reporting have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Daily Beast, and other publications.