"A once-in-a-lifetime trip to a region full of fascination, danger, and promise, with a guide who is a sensitive observer and witty raconteur .... Wonderful". -- Daniel Schorr

"Milton Viorst has no rivals in American journalism in his compassion and understanding of the Arab world. But Sandcastles is more than a political primer on the Middle East; it is a psychological and social tour of the Arab people and the wondrous cities they live in. This is a political history as it should be written". -- Seymour M. Hersh