The square moon
Subtitle: supernatural tales
By: Ghada Samman ; translated from the Arabic by Issa J. Boullata.
Contributors: Boullata, Issa J., 1929-
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Fayetteville, Ark
Language: eng
Number of pages: 203
Description: Marking collisions of culture and character, these ten short stories arise at the frontiers where Arabic tradition melds with both the modern European world and a Gothic strata of the supernatural. The resultant mix sparks tensions between the sexes, between identities, and between experimental forms of storytelling and strict narrative.

In Samman's fiction, matchmakers still come to call, but lovers go bungee jumping. A schizophrenic has a discussion with one of his personalities about murder and relationships with women. Avoiding ghosts both real and imagined, a war exile confronts class structure; the art of Paris; and the trials of being a woman, an Arab, and a writer in a country and culture not her own.

The spirit of a strangled lover tells the story of his murder and of the web of love, beauty, lust, and loathing that brought about his demise.