War is undoubtedly the main protagonist of the powerful stories told by Chingiz Aitmatov. Face to Face also tells the tragic story of a couple who married with fresh hopes. Following the outbreak of war in the spring of their marriage, Jumabay, who was sent to the front along with thousands of others defending his country, succumbs to the fear of death and deserts. While living an exhausting life as a fugitive—in his home at night and in a cave during the day—the difficult conditions begin to affect and change him more deeply day by day. Face to Face, in which Aitmatov asks bold questions about the nature of evil, is a striking story about good, evil, and change.

Al-Ghazali’s famous work Al-Munqidh min al-Dalal (Deliverance from Error), which has been at the center of debates for centuries, is one of the most original texts in the history of Islamic thought, not only for its examination of the intellectual and faith movements of Islamic thought in its own era but also for the unprecedented interpretation it puts forward regarding skepticism. This famous work, briefly known as Al-Munqidh, is a kind of autobiographical text in which Al-Ghazali recounts the great transformation and development in his own intellectual world. The text you are holding has been prepared based on the oldest known manuscript of Al-Munqidh—of which there are numerous handwritten copies in libraries around the world—and by comparing it with other copies. This great work, which is a sort of diary of Al-Ghazali’s search for truth, has been met with great interest both in the Islamic world and in the West since early times.