Banipal 26 - Summer 2006

...in view of the devastating current events in Lebanon, is particularly chilling, recounting as it does the experience of the hero Murtada when his house collapses on top of him. There's a feature on Six Iraq Novelists – Saadi Yousef, Mohammed Khudayyir, Lutfiya Dulaimi, Fadhil al-Azzawi, Kadhim al-Hallaq and Inaam Kachachi – whose works all open up onto vivid and often painful episodes of life in Iraq.

The feature on NEW WRITING IN EGYPT continues with works by five young authors, and the LITERARY INFLUENCES feature is provided by the late renowned and respected Jordanian writer Ghalib Halasa from a collection of his articles on writing.

CONTENTS


Cover artist: Sattar Kawoosh

EDITORIAL Four Arab authors touring in Britain

Jamal Mahjoub – A short story In the Long Shadows
Hassan Nassr – “Earthquake Nightmare” A chapter from the novel Return to Dar al-Basha
Siham Bouhlal – Three Poems

LITERARY INFLUENCES
Ghalib Halasa We are the Generation without Teachers

NOVELS BY SIX IRAQI AUTHORS
Saadi Youssef – “Fadhil al-Marzoog” An excerpt from Triangle of the Circle
Mohammad Khudayyir – “First Exploration” An excerpt from Basrayatha

Saadi Youssef – TRIBUTE to Mahdi Issa al-Saqr

Lutfiyya Dulaimi – An excerpt from Hayat’s Garden
Fadhil al-Azzawi – Burhan Abdullah’s Secret Chest An excerpt from The Last of the Angels
Kadhim al-Hallaq – An excerpt from My One-Eyed Father and his Six Wives
Inaam Kachachi – A chapter from Streams of Hearts

NEW WRITING IN EGYPT continued
Yasser Abdel Latif – A chapter from The Law of Inheritance
Girgis Shukry – Four Poems
Mustafa Zikri – Four Tales
Hamdy el-Gazzar – Chapters from the novel Black Magic
Youssef Rakha – A short story Dead Man’s Town

A TRAVELLNG TALE
Ali Mosbah – Istanbul Diary

INTERVIEW WITH AN EDITOR
Michel Beard and Adnan Haydar, Editors, Middle East Literature in Translation Series, Syracuse University Press

BOOK REVIEWS
Susannah Tarbush In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
Zuzana Kratka Le roman arabe by Kadhim Jihad Hassan
Margaret Obank Burning in the Past Tense by Suhail Shadoud
Hussain al-Mozany Sophia by Mohammad Hassan Alwan

BOOKS IN BRIEF

Contributors and Translators