ها قد انتهى الزمن الطويل، وحان الوقت المنتظر. البشر بين لهو ولعب، وفتن كقطع الليل المظلم. الأرض تزيَّنت وتهيَّأت، وصعدت الشياطين على كل المنابر. فلا تدري أين تضع روحك، وكيف تقبض على دينك. ضباب الحق غطَّى سواد الباطل، وعين قلبك وحدها التي ترى. ثم حان وقت خروجنا.. وتهيَّأ البشر للفتنة الأخيرة؛ فتنة النهاية.
There was a tree on the river bank, a coconut tree. Siddhartha leaned over her, wrapped his arm around her torso and then looked at the greenish water flowing beneath him. He looked down and was filled with the desire to lower himself into the water. The terrible emptiness in the water reflected a terrifying emptiness in his soul. Yes. He was at his end. There was nothing left but to remove himself. This was the work he longed to do, to destroy the formula he hated! May the fish devour this heart of Siddhartha, this imbecile, this corrupt and worn-out body, this dull, consuming soul! May the fish and crocodiles devour him and the demons tear him apart.
With convulsive features, he stared at the water and saw his face and spat on it. He moved his arms away from the tree trunk and turned slightly, hoping to fall on his head and dive. With his eyes closed, he leaned toward death.
"Sophie Perrin" is a French woman who is fond of speed and hates stability. Her sadness is sudden but authentic, her desires are sudden but stem from existential anxiety, and her questions are many but they hide deep wounds.
And Hanifa Kamal, the stubborn Kurdish girl, lived a miserable childhood in Aleppo, which ended in painful torture when her father was forced to choose between two wives, and the decision was to divorce her mother and move them away to a distant village.
There is an “umbilical cord” connecting the two, which will only be revealed with “Paola,” who decides to travel from Paris to Aleppo.
In her novel, Maha Hassan takes us to the world of the Kurds in Syria, with all its rituals, customs and traditions, highlighting their suffering in a country in which they live, but which is cruel to them. It moves between two cultures: the West and the East, and in doing so it raises the question of identity, its true component, and the question of belonging and its meaning.
