Voted... Best Middle Eastern Restaurant by the Jewish News Readers! Lunches starting at I I On The Bookshelf --- DINE-IN ONLY :110% I OFF Baklava And Bombs Total Bill $ 4 95 Expires 4/30/03 Full Service Catering I Not good with any other offer. Not available on lunch or dinner specials. I r I Complete Dinners I Appetizer Tra y ($25- Value) With any catering order of $125 I as low as $795 F.M. BLACK Featurewell.com Expires 4/30/03 Not good with any other offer. a 4189 ORCHARD LAKE AT PONTIAC TRAIL IN WEST BLOOMFIELD The rebet (248) 865-0000 Open 7 Days a Week for Lunch & Dinner Restaurant THE GALLERY RESTAURANT Enjoy gracious dining amid a beautiful atmosphere of casual elegance 1 415 OPEN 7 DAYS: MON.- SAT. 7 a.m.- 9:30 p.m. SUN. 8 a.m.- 9 p.m. West Bloomfield Plaza • 6638 Telegraph Road and Maple • 248-851-0313 ( I° 0000624550 NE- YARD BAR 4 -.1 Family Restaurant OPEN 7 DAYS –11 a.m. to 12 Mid. TI IL ' ,LAC f. I<>12 SLAB OF RIBS FOR MKS BBQ CHICKEN FOR TWO WIthorItilthoulSkIn MOE& 2 POTATOES • 2 SLAWS and 2 GARUC BREADS 1 coumnperaders Dine in orCanyOut Expinis0413010.3 JN ORCHARD LAKE RD. SOUTH OF 14 • Farm. Hills • 851 7000 itgirliZZOL ZIT. - SZECHUAN Chinese Carry-Out Restaurant Mon-Thurs, 11:00 am - 9:30 pm Fri, 11:00 am - 10:00 pm Sat 12:00 pm - 10:00 pm Sun 12:00 pm - 9:30 pm AVAILABLE 4/18 2003 72 Reg $6.95 Any combination plate lunch includes egg roll & fried rice Expires .4/30/03 (248) 988-9333 Fax: (248) 988-938 I 395 I Telegraph (NE corner of Long Lake Rd.) • Bloomfield Twp. www.szechuangourmet.corn S ami Michael, an Iraqi-born novelist who writes about the clash of Arab and Jewish cul- tures, knows what it's like to be a part of a beleaguered minority. In Iraq, he was always labeled a Jew; in Israel, he is still known as a Jewish writer from an Arab country. The irony is hardly lost on him. Born in Baghdad in 1926, Michael became active in the communist underground and was forced to flee to Iran in the first year of his uni- versity studies. In 1949, he was able to make his way to Israel, where he has lived ever since. Tip date, he has writ- ten nine novels, the lat- est of which is 2001's Water Kissing Water BREAKFAST • LUNCH • DINNER s2 OFF Meet Israeli writer Sami Michael, whose novel-turned-movie comes to this year's JCC Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival. (Am Oved). Other books have included Michael writes all of his novels in Hebrew. In addition to three honorary doctorates, he also has been awarded numerous prizes, including the Ze'ev Prize, Kugel Prize and, twice, the Prime Minister's Prize. The following is excerpted from a recent interview, conducted in Hebrew in his apartment overlooking Haifa's bay. JN: How does the Arab-Israeli con- flict express itself in your writing? SM: I write about the whole conflict. When I write about a Jewish character or an Israeli character, I write as a Jewish writer. And when I describe an Arab - character, I write as an Arab writer about Arabs. So, for me, the Arab isn't the other one — he's myself also. And the same is true about writ- ing about being Israeli. It isn't the other for me — it's myself also. Refuge, A Handful of Fog, Trumpet in the JN: Do you feel split at Wadi and his best-sell- all between the life that Sarni Michael. • One of the ing novel, Victoria, you left in Iraq and the which depicted a family most poweifiil naturalists in one that you're living now in Israel? saga set in Baghdad and modern Hebre w literature. SM: I am like baklava was translated into sev- — a pastry made of many different eral languages. . The film version of A Trumpet in the layers, but every layer reaches and Wadi, shot in Haifa and awarded Best soaks into the other layers. So I am not split. I like my past, I like my Film at the Haifa Film Festival, Best present, and I even like the time Drama by the 2001 Israeli Motion between them. Picture Academy and First Prize at the Israel Film Festival, is a political love JN: So you feel at home here in story about two Israeli outsiders: Alex, Israel? Or is home found in your use a Jew and recent Russian immigrant, of language? and Huda, a Christian Arab woman. SM: I don't think that one's home — It will screen 5 p.m. Wednesday, April even of a spiritual being like a writer 30, in Birmingham; 5 p.m. Thursday, May 1, in Windsor; and 8 p.m. Monday, — that one's home can be in language. Language is a song, no more than May 8, in Commerce Township. that. I think that the home of a writer The film also is the opening selec- tion of the Israel Film Festival, coming is his real house, the house in which he's living at the present time. to Chicago May 8-15. My home is not the house I lived in in Baghdad or any other house that I F.M. Black was a reporter in the lived in but this house that I'm living Jerusalem bureau of the New York in now. A lot of writers try to flee from Times from 1988-1991. He now the present, from reality, from politics, contributes to other publications. but it's impossible to flee.