Book excerpt: "Smadar Lavie, in creating this beautiful book, has accomplished something wonderful. An Iraeli Jew, she sojourned among the Mzeina Bedouin with an open heart and comprehending spirit . . . [and] deeply engaged their way of life and their oral literature."—Maxime Rodinson, Directeur d'Etudes, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes "Speaking about a region where conflict, for all involved, has deepened divisions, separating 'us' from 'them,' Smadar Lavie courageously seeks out the paradoxes and ambiguities in everyday life."—Renato Rosaldo, Stanford University