The author draws on his “old saddlebag” of memories, experiences and anecdotes gathered throughout a lifetime, and transforms them into fictional stories, based on human relationships, while mentioning some historical facts, as well. In some, he denounces injustice and introduces real life events, inviting to perform in-depth reflection. Family, friendship and love are the main themes of several of these tales. The stories also reflect a reconciliation between East and West, a bridge of literary sharing between both the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean Basin. The author stakes a claim for women and their decisive, sometimes liberal character, inspired by some he has known throughout his life. No story is like any other, sometimes giving us a glimpse of other people’s lives while allowing us to see them from the inside, with their ups and downs, their hopes and disappointments. "The Old Saddlebag" attempts to do all of this.

Abdo Tounsi was born in Amman in 1952, just 300 meters from the Roman amphitheater. This marked him, casting an intercultural dimension upon his viewpoint of life. Surrounded by Palestinian refugees, he grew aware of the great tragedy endured by the Palestinian people. He arrived in Spain in 1972 and studied interior design. He has written more than 650 articles spanning seven years, and published the magazine Palestina Digital. In 2013, he was bestowed with the APEAE (Association of Arab Journalists and Writers in Spain) Award. Since January 2015, he has presided over the Círculo Intercultural Hispano Árabe (Intercultural Spanish-Arab Circle), known by the acronym CIHAR, which he co-founded. Through CIHAR, he has created a network of collaborators that includes entities and individuals in the sociocultural realm. In 2019, his intercultural work was acknowledged in an homage by the Council of Arab Ambassadors in Spain during the celebration of the “Arab Day.”