“Amazing is a hidden treasure in Aleppo,” says one of the novel’s heroines. In her work, Maha Hassan tries to bring this amazement through writing and memories to re-draw Aleppo and its ancient popular neighborhoods, its rituals of living, the simplicity of its people, and their small dreams, before the war comes and destroys all of this in its path.
Relying on a unique technique inspired by the names of Arab and international novels and the titles of the chapters, the heroes of “The Amazing Neighborhood” tell us their story from “Zarqa’s Imagination” and “Beirut Nightmares” to the house of “Sleeping Beauties.”
It is a story about love, childhood memories, intentional killing, the emotional placenta, and the role of literature in our lives
واية يا بعده رواية عاطفية جرت أحداثها بين الشاب حمد، الذي أنهي دراسته في الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية، وتقدم لطلب يد الفتاة بسمة ابنة الجيران، وتتم الخطبة
Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm takes the controversy and controversy raised by Salman Rushdie’s book “The Satanic Verses” in the late 1980s as a starting point to address what he calls “the mentality of prohibition and the logic of criminalization” among Arab thinkers, in a panoramic manner, and in other articles - added in later editions of the book - he addresses many of the issues Related issues, such as Orientalism, reverse Orientalism, concepts of cultural invasion, and authenticity. The writer dives behind the implicit meanings, trying to reach the essence, or the real motive behind the issues he discusses, and raises his voice loudly to argue and discuss the opinions of his fellow researchers and intellectuals: such as Edward Said and Adonis. The audacity makes these sober articles an important document of the discussions and dialogues that prevailed among Arab thinkers at that stage, even if one does not agree with any of them. What is important here is the celebration of free thought and debate based on diligence and knowledge.
Although the deep, passionate, and enjoyable discussions contained in this book provide many answers, they also stimulate many renewed questions that continue to trouble us and justify our need for readings of this kind.
Only Your Hands is a collection containing poetic texts written in Arabic and translated into English in a fresh language.
It carries intense feelings of love and longing.
It calls for optimism and approaching life in a spirit of hope.
In it, the poet sends her questions about love and life to the moon, the stars, and the sky. She addresses the distant lover with patience and patience, and dreams of a near meeting and eternal happiness in the shadow of love and optimism.
Only your hands are texts written from the heart to reach the heart and inspire a spirit of happiness and hope in the reader.
Do you know how longing reaches its peak? When you continue, despite the arrows being directed at you professionally... arrows coming from the paths of no return, only to be caught by winds that also dig between your folds and write down the stories of the thorny autumn... and despite this, the hope of meeting is sweeping through all your insides... In our village, you find some people talking about the spring season as told in volumes of myths, and some of them painted a picture of it, lived in it and in its memory, and invented a lie in order to celebrate it with the lighting of the candles of the April cake. It is a cake that is made once a year, in April, and has remained sacred. How do we celebrate a spring that was only mentioned in volumes of legends?! Then I decided to be silent, but my pen was not silent yet. Between my letters I feel spring. Perhaps I have done the same as them. I also made up a lie in order to see from the silence of the letters what the previous ones in the search had gone astray from. Until I made the decision to search for him, but with a new identity and deeper convictions; To make it easier than trying to find it... Who?! Sheikh of our tribe; Through it, the spring to which we lost our way will be completed. Yes, it will be completed at the top of that mountain. In the middle of a search, you lose your dearest person, and you find yourself alone, complete. Perhaps I had found it among my letters at that time, and I knew where it was, or my subconscious was mocking me. But all I want to say in my right mind is: Honestly, I will not give up my new identity.
