Books

Dying to Reach Europe: The African Immigrant Crisis

By Aisha K. Nasser

African Titanics

By Abu Bakr Khaal

Translated by Charis Bredin

Darf Publishers Ltd, 2014.

(First published in Arabic by Dar al Saqi, London, 2008.)

Media accounts normalize the tally of illegal African immigrants drowning while crossing the Mediterranean. Eritrean novelist Abu Bakr Khaal disrupts this false sense of normality by giving voices to these immigrants.

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Books

Tawfiq al-Hakim: Foretelling the Youth Revolution

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By Nada Ramadan Elnahla

In the translator’s introduction, Radwan explains the importance of the timing of this publication, shedding light on this pioneering figure who predominantly contributed to Arabic literature through his novels, short stories, and plays.

The Revolt of the Young: Essays by Tawfiq al-Hakim
Translated by Mona Radwan
Syracuse UP, 2015, 145 pp.

Syrian Booknotes

By Elie Chalala

Since the 2011 March uprising, scores of books have been published on Syrian politics, with most written by a new generation of scholars with no longstanding background in what might be loosely called “Syrian Studies.” For someone who has devoted years to the study of Syrian politics, first as a graduate student and then as an academic, I admit to not missing many of Syria’s “old guard” analysts.

Books

Ghostly Performances: Arab-American ‘Otherness’ and Haunted Stereotypes

By Angele Ellis

Unquestionably, Michael Malek Najjar’s new book will stand as a vanguard in the study of Arab-American culture and arts. “Arab American Drama, Film and Performance: A Critical Study, 1908 to the Present,” reviewed by Angelle Ellis for Al Jadid’s forthcoming issue (vol. 19, No. 69), adds much for those interested in the history of Arab theater and film, specialist and the non-specialist alike.

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Sin, Redemption, and Visions of Female Illness in Modern Arab Literature

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By Bobby Gulshan

Hamdar’s examination of the female body in illness and suffering presents a compelling contribution to the body of literary criticism of Arabic Literature. She invokes strains of critical thought—like Foucault and the idea of discourse—using them to map the development of the image of the female body in recent Arabic literature.

The Female Suffering Body, Illness and Disability in Modern Arabic Literature
By Abir Hamdar

From Kansas to Beirut: A Tale of Two Women

By Lynne Rogers

Sarah Houssayni’s debut novel, “Fireworks,” begins at the onset of the Israeli 2006 bombing of Lebanon in retaliation for the Hezbollah kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers. This promising novel interweaves the story of two single women, one a 30-year old American nurse from Kansas and one young, 16-year old Lebanese teenager, both trying to negotiate family pressures while searching for love.

Reconstructing the Disastrous History of the Lebanese Famine

By Angele Ellis

“Safer Barlik,”—the phrase for the Famine— translated as “The Exile” in a 1967 Lebanese feature film traces its roots to the longtime practice of abducting and pressing men in Lebanon, then part of Greater Syria, into Ottoman slave labor gangs. (Safer means voyage; Barlik, Anatolia in Turkish Asia Minor.) Being pressed into these gangs proved tantamount to receiving a death sentence; even if a laborer survived his harsh work term, his masters would release him into the Anatolian wilderness with no resources to return home. Farshee’s research leads him to estimate that only three percent ever did make it back.

The Aftermath of War: Barakat Novel Focuses on Lost Humanity

By Joseph Sills

In “Oh, Salaam!” Najwa Barakat tells a haunting story of post-war life in an unnamed Arab country — unmistakably similar to Lebanon — through the lens of two survivors, Luqman and Salaam. Both feel helplessly stuck in a monotonous existence that does not compare with the thrills of war.

Books