Hiding behind the identity of a mysterious orientalist, a young American comes to Jabal al-Arab, moves between the villages of Suwayda, and then continues his journey to Latakia. To complete the threads of a miraculous story he heard and became a party to, let us read it partly from the pages of the orientalist’s memoirs, and hear it partly from the tongues of people who lived it.
The Jabal al-Arab region continues to generate stories that tell of the harshness of life, social injustice, and the tyranny of customs and traditions that strangle the fates of heroes. But just as there are “pashas” and “maraba’un” in the mountain, there are “pashas” and “peasants” in other places. With the conflict between all of these people, falling in love becomes an adventure with unknown consequences.
In his novel, Rabih Murshid delves deeply into the oral heritage of his environment, employing its myths, songs, and poems arranged within graceful and interesting narrative templates, to tell a love story between two people riding on horseback and trying to conquer fear by singing.
قد تُفتح صناديق الذكرى بسبب درجة حرارة مُعينة، يستشعرها الجسد مع تغير فصول السنة، حين يطرق الشتاء الأبواب تبدأ أجسادنا بالبحث عن أولئك الذين يشعروننا بالدفء
إلى أفضل أب على الإطلاق بقلم تيم فينتون ... لا شيء يمكن أن يعدك تماماً لما تعنيه كلمة أبوة. هل تذكر عندما حملت طفلك بين ذراعيك للمرة الأولى وسألت نفسك: "ماذا سيحدث بعدئذ؟". لا يوجد دليل أو تطبيق معين يمكنك من خوض رحلة الأبوة. إنها رحلة عاطفية لا يمكن التنبؤ بها. تتخللها ضحكات ودموع، وأوقات مليئة بالمرح والمواقف المضحكة وغير المتوقعة، وبلحظات عزيزة ستحملها في قلبك إلى الأبد.
The characters of this novel are searching for a different life. Some of them leave their work in the cotton factory and become sex workers in the hot springs resort, while one of them enters prison of his own accord in search of calm. A third goes to her hometown, discovering strange caves and tunnels, while a fourth chooses a refuge in A rural province, where Chinese herbs are used in traditional medicine.
These characters are intertwined in multiple emotional and physical relationships, while each of them seems like a mirror of the other, as the story of each of them begins where the previous one left off, in a fluid temporal structure.
In this novel, which was longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2019, Tsun Shieh writes about the meaning of life in its relationship to love, sex, birthplace and work, and about the vanishing border between life and death, between wakefulness and sleep, in a blurry and turbulent plot full of sensual descriptions and vivid metaphors. , its aspects resonate with echoes of magical realism.
Hotel California and other songs
A collection of texts written in three cities during 2018
Madrid/Istanbul/Sandiego
In it, the writer tells about the scenes she experienced in the three cities, the feelings she experienced, and the nostalgia she felt while on those short trips.
In Madrid, she had the pleasure of learning about Spanish civilization and some Islamic monuments. In Istanbul, she enjoyed sitting in cafes and simple alleys, and in Sandiego, she experienced the diversity of scenes, foods, and music.
