An international film festival sparks a cross-cultural romance sparks in this novel of cultural history, ethnic tensions, and the power of love. Aisha and Benjamin meet at a film festival in Spain, and the instant attraction hits them both like a lightning bolt. She is a documentary filmmaker, and he is a historian. She is a Muslim, and he is a Jew. And as they get closer, the misunderstanding between them, and the tensions between their two worlds, escalates to dizzying extremes. Red Star, Crescent Moon mixes contemporary and the historical worlds in a bold tale of clashing cultures. It is a tale of new romance and ancient conflicts, where pop culture and political violence exist side by side. The romance of Aisha and Benjamin is set against the backdrop of a Hollywood epic in production, a movie megastar with seductive intentions, and terrorists who wish to reclaim Spain for Islam.

Linking discontent and unrest in Harlem and Los Angeles to anticolonial revolution in Algeria, Egypt, and elsewhere, Black leaders in the United States have frequently looked to the anti-imperialist movements and antiracist rhetoric of the Muslim Third World for inspiration. Daulatzai maps the shared history between Black Muslims, Black radicals, and the Muslim Third World, showing how Black artists and activists imagined themselves not as national minorities but as part of a global majority, connected to larger communities of resistance. From publisher description.

Avi Greenbaum is Jewish and lives in West Jerusalem. Moussa Shakir is Palestinian and lives in East Jerusalem. Both are 15 years old, live without their fathers, adore their older brothers, and belong to the same soccer club. Avi commemorates the Holocaust and celebrates Israeli independence, while Moussa mourns on Nakba Day, marking the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and land in 1948. Their lives are parallel lines: they have everything in common and nothing at all. Each is oblivious to the other’s existence. As Avi and Moussa go about their daily routines in the spring of 2006, they face reminders of the conflict that has dogged the region for the past three generations — the security wall, suicide bombings, police operations, and the looming shadow of war. While navigating this legacy of suspicion and violence, they must decide what their own roles in the stalemate will be.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1840.