Books

Trauma changes people. For the unnamed narrator of Layla AlAmmar’s second novel, trauma pushes her to choose silence. “Silence is a Sense” (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2021) follows a Syrian woman who escaped from Syria to the United Kingdom, settling into a quiet English town. She spends her days observing the traumas of her neighbors: from the man who barely ever turns on his lights, to another obsessed with exercising, to an abusive man who beats his wife and children. Her voyeurism feeds into her writing — her only form of expressing herself. She submits essays to a “newsmagazine with a big name” under the pseudonym “the Voiceless,” often discussing the refugee crisis. But as her editor Josie increasingly probes the narrator for intimate details and memories of her experiences in Syria, she begins to question herself: how much of her mind’s ability to make sense of what happened does she trust?

The story of Arab arts and culture cannot be told without a sizable chapter on Um Kulthum (1904 -1975), the legendary Egyptian singer venerated by generations of Arabs throughout the world. Many historical accounts have been written about Um Kulthum’s life and works, but never a fictional one, with the exception of a television series in which the script’s details were artistically filled in. 

Tahar Ben Jelloun returns with his latest novel, “Honey and Bitterness” (Gallimard 2021), following the story of a middle-class Moroccan family torn apart by the suicide of their 16-year-old daughter after her rape. Based on actual events, “Honey and Bitterness” begins after Samia’s death as her parents, Murad and Malika, struggle to process the tragedy. Their marriage — which was arranged by their mothers — descends into loveless, mutual resentment as they cope with their pain, all the while uncovering the truth of Samia’s rape in her diary (a secret the teenager never revealed to her parents because of its taboo nature).