The Anchor Book of Modern Arabic Fiction
This sweeping anthology is as eclectic as the nations it represents. Johnson-Davies, called "the leading Arabic-to-English translator of our time" by Edward Said, collects work from 79 writers across 14 countries. Among those included are Mahmoud Teymour, widely regarded as the father of the Arabic short story; Naguib Mahfouz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature; and Hanan al-Shaykh, a female writer in Arabic whose work in translation has far outsold copies in her native tongue. The quality of these short stories, novellas, and novel excerpts vary, but there are many standouts, including Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's emotionally dynamic excerpt from the novel In Search of Walid Masoud; Nawal El Saadawi's brave treatment of sex, slavery and women; Yusuf Idris's morally resonant excerpt from City of Love and Ashes; and the lyrical entries from Al-Shaykh and Mahfouz. Though some readers might grow tired of the religious piety and conservative thought offered up in most of the work, readers who are interested in dipping into a contemporary literary canon very different from the West's will find this an illuminating resource. An introduction by Johnson-Davies provides a lucid yet brief overview, as do the short biographies preceding each author's work.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.