Novel
Short Review:
In
Love in Exile Bahaa Taher presents multilayered variations on the themes of
exile, disillusionment, failed dreams, and the redemptive power of love.
Unwilling to recant his Nasserist beliefs, the unnamed narrator is an Egyptian
journalist in a self-imposed exile in Europe after conflict with the management
of his newspaper and a divorce from his wife.
Absorbed in introspection over
his impotent position at the paper and in ill health, he suddenly finds himself
faced with two issues he cannot ignore: the escalating tensions in
Israeli-occupied Lebanon and, more personally, an unexpected love affair with a
much younger Austrian woman, Brigitte. The narrator’s familial exile has left
him a “long-distance father” facing the difficulties of raising children from
whom he is rapidly growing distant. His son is drifting into fundamentalism
while his daughter falls under the materialistic sway of the west. After
struggling mightily to remain part of their lives, he finds himself
marginalized and rejected. Brigitte, also an exile of sorts, encourages him to
turn his back on the problems and pressures of the everyday world and cocoon
himself in the warmth of their love. However, the horror of events surrounding
the occupation of Lebanon in 1982 soon shocks them out of their contentment and
safety.
About the Author:
Bahaa Taher was born in 1935 in Cairo and published his
first short story in 1964. After living in Switzerland in the 1980s and 90s, he
returned to Egypt and received much literary acclaim. He received the State
Award of Merit in Literature, Egypt’s highest honor for writing, in 1998 and
the Italian Giuseppe Acerbi prize for his novel Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery
in 2000.
Product Details
- Paperback: 264 pages
- Publisher: American University in Cairo Press (April 1, 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 977424902X
- ISBN-13: 978-9774249020
- Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.7 inches
Link:
قراءة ممتعـة
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