Novel
(Booker prize- Arabic Version)
Short Review:
Hind,
newly arrived in New York with her eight-year-old son, several suitcases of
unfinished manuscripts, and hardly any English,
finds a room in a Brooklyn teeming with people like her who dream of becoming writers.
As she discovers the various corners of her new home, they conjure up parallel memories from her childhood and her small Bedouin village in the Nile Delta: Emilia who sells used shoes at the flea market smells like Zeinab, the old woman who worked for Hind's grandfather; the reflection of her own body as she dances tango awakens the awkwardness of her relationship to that body across the years; the story of Lilette, the Egyptian bourgeoise who has lost her memory, prompts Hind to safeguard her own.
Through this kaleidoscopic spectrum of disadvantaged characters we encounter unique but familiar life histories in this award-winning and intensely moving novel of displacement and exile. It was the winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, and was shortlisted for the 2011 Arabic Booker prize.
finds a room in a Brooklyn teeming with people like her who dream of becoming writers.
As she discovers the various corners of her new home, they conjure up parallel memories from her childhood and her small Bedouin village in the Nile Delta: Emilia who sells used shoes at the flea market smells like Zeinab, the old woman who worked for Hind's grandfather; the reflection of her own body as she dances tango awakens the awkwardness of her relationship to that body across the years; the story of Lilette, the Egyptian bourgeoise who has lost her memory, prompts Hind to safeguard her own.
Through this kaleidoscopic spectrum of disadvantaged characters we encounter unique but familiar life histories in this award-winning and intensely moving novel of displacement and exile. It was the winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, and was shortlisted for the 2011 Arabic Booker prize.
Author:
Miral
al-Tahawy : also known as Miral
Mahgoub, is an award-winning Egyptian novelist and short story writer. She
comes from a conservative Bedouin background and is regarded as a pioneering
literary figure. The Washington Post has described her as "the first
novelist to present Egyptian Bedouin life beyond stereotypes and to illustrate
the crises of Bedouin women and their urge to break free.
In
2007, al-Tahawy moved to the United States. She served as an assistant
professor in the foreign languages department at Appalachian State University
in North Carolina. She was also the coordinator of their Arabic programme. She
is currently an assistant professor at Arizona State University.
Works:
* The Tent, translated by Anthony Calderbank
* The Blue Aubergine, translated by Anthony Calderbank
* Gazelle Tracks, translated by Anthony Calderbank
Product
Details
- Series: Modern Arabic Literature
- Hardcover: 182 pages
- Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press (January 15, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 9774164881
- ISBN-13: 978-9774164880
- Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 0.8 x 6.3 inches
Link:
قراءة مـمـتعـة
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