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Banipal 60 - Alaa al-Deeb, A Writer Apart (Autumn/Winter 2017)
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CONTENTS BANIPAL 60 – Alaa al-Deeb, A Writer Apart
(Autumn/Winter 2017)
EDITORIAL
Safi Said: A chapter from the novel Kitsch 2011, translated by Jonathan Wright
Abdallah Uld Mohamadi Bah: A chapter from the novel Birds of al-Nab’a, translated by Julia Ihnatowicz
Lamia Makaddam: Four poems, translated by Karen McNeil & Miled Faiza
Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin: A short story, My Mother, the Other Women and I, translated by Adel Babikir
Widad Nabi: Five poems, translated by Jonathan Wright
ALAA AL-DEEB, A WRITER APART
Chapters from Alaa al-Deeb’s novel Lemon Blossom, translated by Jonathan Wright
Mahmoud el-Wardany: The Trans-generational Alaa al-Deeb
Yasser Abdel Latif: A Lofty Eucalyptus Tree in Maadi
Mansoura Ez-Eldin: The Defeated Leftist Intellectual
Alaa al-Deeb: An excerpt from the novella Al-Qahira, translated by Raphael Cohen
Alaa al-Deeb: A chapter from the novel Children without Tears, translated by Raphael Cohen
Alaa al-Deeb: An excerpt from the novel Moon over the Swamp, translated by Paul Starkey
Ibrahim Farghali: Observing the Distortion of Intellectual Identity
Youssef Rakha: Five Memories of Alaa al-Deeb
Alaa Khaled: Alaa al-Deeb’s Cairo, translated by Suneela Mubayi
Ben Koerber reviews Alaa al-Deeb’s novel Lemon Blossom
Alaa al-Deeb: A short story The River beneath the Rocks, translated by Nariman Youssef
Alaa al-Deeb: Chapters from his memoir Pause before the Decline, translated by Sally Gomaa & Jonathan Wright
A TRAVELLING TALE
Lina Hawyan Alhassan: Chapters from the novel Wolves Do Not Forget, translated by Samira Kawar
BOOK REVIEWS
Paul Starkey: No Road to Paradise by Hassan Daoud
To read the review click here
Laura Ferreri: The American Quarter by Jabbour Douaihy
Susannah Tarbush: Him, Me, Mohammad Ali by Randa Jarrar
Margaret Obank: Farewell, Damascus by Ghada Samman
To read the review click here
Paul Blezard: The Book of Safety by Yasser Abdel Hafez
To read the review click here
Hassouna Mosbahi: Birds of al-Nab’a by Abdallah Uld Mohamadi Bah
To read the review click here
Becki Maddock: Maryam, Keeper of Stories by Alawiya Sobh
Clare Roberts: The Baghdad Eucharist by Sinan Antoon
BOOKS IN BRIEF
The Scent of Jasmine: Coming of Age in Jerusalem and Damascus by Anan Ameri
Codename: Butterfly by Ahlam Bsharat
TRIBUTE
Denys Johnson-Davies (1922-2017)
EVENTS
LONDON: Sheikh Zayed Book Award Seminar
BERLIN: Banipal at the International Literature Festival
FRANKFURT: ICORN-Banipal panel discussion
ASSILAH: Banipal Symposium marking 20 years
The translators of the issue are:
Adel Babikir, Raphael Cohen, Miled Faiza. Sally Gomaa, Julia Ihnatowicz, Samira Kawar, Ben Koerber, Karen McNeil, Paul Starkey, Jonathan Wright, Nariman Youssef
For information about all contributors to Banipal's issues – authors, writers, reviewers, illustrators, artists, and of course, all translators – check out their individual webpage from the alphabetical list of family names at http://www.banipal.co.uk/contributors/
Selections from this issue
FICTION
Alaa al-Deeb (1939-2016) – Chapters from Lemon Blossom
Abdallah Uld Mohamadi Bah – Chapter from the novel Birds of Al-Nab'a
OTHER SELECTIONS
Mansoura Ez-Eldin – Article on Alaa al-Deeb: The Defeated Leftist Intellectual
Yasser Abdel Latif – Article on Alaa al-Deeb: A Lofty Eucalyptus Tree in Maadi
The Cinderellas of Muscat by Huda Hamed (Banipal Books, 2025)
The Tent Generations
Things I Left Behind by Shada Mustafa, translated by Nancy Roberts
Shadow of the Sun by Taleb Alrefai
Birds of Nabaa, A Mauritanian Tale by Abdallah Uld Mohamadi Bah
The Stone Serpent, Barates of Palmyra’s Elegy for Regina his Beloved by Nouri Al-Jarrah
Mansi A Rare Man in His Own Way by Tayeb Saleh (Banipal Books, 2020)
Tayeb Salih
Goat Mountain by Habib Selmi
Habib Selmi, author of Goat Mountain and 3 times shortlisted for the IPAF
The Mariner by Taleb Alrefai (Banipal Books, 2020)
Taleb Alrefai, author of Shadow of the Sun and The Mariner
Fadhil Al-Azzawi's Beautiful Creatures by Fadhil al-Azzawi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Fadhil al-Azzawi
Poems of Alexandria and New York by Ahmed Morsi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Saïd Khatibi
Amjad Nasser (1955–2019)
Digital Banipal the full archive
Ahmed Morsi, author of Poems of Alexandria and New York
Sarajevo Firewood
The Madness of Despair
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