A train traveling with a single passenger is forced to stop for an entire hour, so the traveler leaves it and walks to waste time, but the paths lead him to a coal mine, then to a gypsy wedding, and finally to a place where five wolves were trapped, to carry out a plan targeting the village and its residents.
In an interesting plot, this novel pulls you in and carries you away without leaving you any chance to escape, as you follow the trail of this mysterious strange man and wonder: Who is he? A saint who came to save the village and its residents? Or just a mentally ill man running away with his madness? Or a philosopher? Or all of these together?
With linguistic and psychological intensity, Elena Alexeeva writes a novel that stands on the border between dystopia, magical realism, and absurdity, drawing inspiration from all of them without drowning in any of them. Therefore, in the year following its publication, it deserved the 2019 Novel of the Year Award and the National Book Center’s Feather Award.
The scent of narcissus
It is a collection of stories that carry within it the harvest of the years. I derived its ideas from my daily observations, experiences, and coexistence with my students and colleagues, but it is not related to a specific character, as I formulated it to be a general situation that sometimes overlaps with more than one experience and more than one character, as the reader will live with the woman who sacrifices... She gave her life for the sake of others in “The Handkerchief”, the oppressed girl in “Abeer”, the arrogant girl “Shatha Al-Narjis”, the struggling teacher “Professor Marzouk”, the unfaithful friend “In the Wind”, and honoring parents “The Moment of Birth” and the downtrodden employee “Skyscrapers”. There is a view into the past through the story “Bars of Silence.”
I wrote this collection during my participation in the Aqdar Writing Program, which was organized by the Ministry of Education two years ago. The Ministry of Education printed limited copies without signing a contract or monopoly on copyright, simply to publish examples of the program’s work during that period, and then we were left with the option of publishing it, as it received remarkable demand and was chosen. One of the secondary schools in Sharjah considered it the best publication last year, and given the insistence of my colleagues and students to obtain copies of it, especially the keenness of a large number of female students to search for it in the exhibition, and the disappointment that it was not published, prompted me to take this step and come to your home, which has become an edifice of the word and a door of culture. To publish my collection, I ask the Almighty God for success.
وتستمر ملحمة الإنتقام والثأر ومرارة الفقد بداية من الفتنة التي ابتدأت من عند وصبان وآشور وبكل الأحداث التي تسببت بها والتي نقلتني بعييداً بكل جزء من تفاصيلها وسحرها مابين هجر،بلاد فارس، أرض الحجاز وجبل آريان ، تنتهي السلسلة عند دعجاء وأفسار.. لاتقل الرواية حبكةً وتشويقاً وإثارةً عن سابقتيها رغم بساطة الأسلوب إلا أنها عظيمة بمحاكاتها لوضع عالمنا العربي الحالي.. تحمل في طياتها الكثير من الرسائل والحِكم ... ختامية موفقة ورائعة لسلسلة عظيمة
