Time and power...
An imaginative fantasy inspired by the imagination, and some may believe that it is a projection of reality, but it is not so, even though our reality does not differ in some parts from the novel.
The names and characters in the novel are borrowed, and do not mean a person, but they are similar in the distant and recent past, and the events of the novel take place in a time frame that exceeds 160 years, in which the hero of the novel is exposed to a lot of injustice from those who have power. In his youth and during his studies, an influential person took advantage of his kinship to implicate him. In a case, even if his status is restored under the law, this remains a formality, as they can harm you even after your death.
He was also subjected to injustice when the woman who made an unjust claim against him reached the governor and turned the scales of the claim in her favor, because everyone sought to please her because of her connection to the head of the pyramid of power.
As the world turns to new media and social media, injustice returns again to the protagonist because someone with power and influence does not like Falih’s proposal or does not like him, and perhaps to please someone higher than him because he knocked on a door or someone who concerns him.
Saleh Al Jasmi.....
The period of writing these stories extended for many years, extending from 1987 with the story “The Smell” to 2013 with the story “May God prolong his life.” They were all written under the weight of heavy tyranny, which made our thinking almost paralyzed and made us free executioners and observers of ourselves. It is “natural” for most of them to be apologized for publishing, as happened with the story “The Smell” which was either apologized for publishing or was ignored by all the newspapers to which it was sent at that time, as well as It happened with several other stories.
All the stories are united by a single concern and a similar atmosphere. Their events take place in the imperial atmosphere, with the meaning of the emperor’s word. The reader does not need effort or help from anyone in deciphering it. They speak of a general concern that everyone feels the burden of, without exception. Some were vocal about it at the times when the stories were written. Some people kept it quiet, but despite the fact that the majority were forced to remain silent, and those who opened their mouths paid a heavy price for not remaining silent, for everyone it was a heavy burden that a person could not get used to, or at the very least hope that it would go away.
These stories were among the forms of expression of that general pain. Some of them were destined to come out to the screen - in some short periods of relief - to reach the audience, even in different formulations from the stories in the book, and some of them remained imprisoned until circumstances allowed them to appear on the pages of this book in your hands.
