The Anchor Book of Modern Arabic Fiction
-
-
3.5 • 2 Ratings
-
-
- $4.99
-
- $4.99
Publisher Description
This dazzling anthology features the work of seventy-nine outstanding writers from all over the Arab-speaking world, from Morocco in the west to Iraq in the east, Syria in the north to Sudan in the south.
Edited by Denys Johnson-Davies, called by Edward Said “the leading Arabic-to-English translator of our time,” this treasury of Arab voices is diverse in styles and concerns, but united by a common language. It spans the full history of modern Arabic literature, from its roots in western cultural influence at the end of the nineteenth century to the present-day flowering of Naguib Mahfouz’s literary sons and daughters. Among the Egyptian writers who laid the foundation for the Arabic literary renaissance are the great Tawfik al-Hakim; the short story pioneer Mahmoud Teymour; and Yusuf Idris, who embraced Egypt’s vibrant spoken vernacular. An excerpt from the Sudanese writer Tayeb Salih’s novel Season of Migration to the North, one of the Arab world’s finest, appears alongside the Libyan writer Ibrahim al-Koni’s tales of the Tuaregs of North Africa, the Iraqi writer Mohamed Khudayir’s masterly story “Clocks Like Horses,” and the work of such women writers as Lebanon’s Hanan al-Shaykh and Morocco’s Leila Abouzeid.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This sweeping anthology is as eclectic as the nations it represents. Johnson-Davies, called "the leading Arabic-to-English translator of our time" by Edward Said, collects work from 79 writers across 14 countries. Among those included are Mahmoud Teymour, widely regarded as the father of the Arabic short story; Naguib Mahfouz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature; and Hanan al-Shaykh, a female writer in Arabic whose work in translation has far outsold copies in her native tongue. The quality of these short stories, novellas, and novel excerpts vary, but there are many standouts, including Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's emotionally dynamic excerpt from the novel In Search of Walid Masoud; Nawal El Saadawi's brave treatment of sex, slavery and women; Yusuf Idris's morally resonant excerpt from City of Love and Ashes; and the lyrical entries from Al-Shaykh and Mahfouz. Though some readers might grow tired of the religious piety and conservative thought offered up in most of the work, readers who are interested in dipping into a contemporary literary canon very different from the West's will find this an illuminating resource. An introduction by Johnson-Davies provides a lucid yet brief overview, as do the short biographies preceding each author's work.
