The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur News and Links for Friday, July 11

The author is currently reading two books from the Middle East and North Africa. The first is the novel "The Angels Die" by Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra. Purchased nearly a year ago, the book follows Turambo, an Arab boxer from Algeria navigating racial, religious, and class divides between Arabs and Europeans between the First and Second World Wars. Turambo uses boxing to escape poverty, but the narrative suggests an uncertain and potentially unhappy ending. The author is nearing completion of this novel.

The second book is "Faces of Love," a collection of Persian poetry carried during commutes on the Washington DC metro. It features three 14th-century Iranian poets from Shiraz: the renowned lyric poet Hafez (whose work is considered the pinnacle of Persian literature and key to understanding Iranian culture), Jahan Malek Khatun, and Obayd-e Zakani. The poets' diverse socioeconomic backgrounds provide a fascinating perspective on the era's poetry. The collection includes a substantial 100-page introduction by Dick Davies exploring the writers, Shiraz, and the socio-cultural context that shaped their work. The author found this book at a Capitol Hill bookstore and considers it a valuable discovery of underrepresented literary figures.