Beirut 39

"These thirty-nine Arab writers have flung open the doors on Arabic culture. The reader touches, feels, hears, tastes and sees the Middle East and North Africa as it really is. Beirut 39 offers a fresh, often ingenious perspective—a world away from headlines and news stories."—Hanan Al-Shaykh, from the Preface

"A well-conceived gathering of poems, short stories and other work by 39 Arab writers under the age of 40. By editor Shimon's account, these writers are part of a 'youthful pan-Arab literary movement' that respects few national boundaries, and that highlights individualism and a yearning for personal freedom. Moreover—and anathema to a purist—these writers 'are not afraid to make grammatical errors. Some purposefully don't finish their sentences, others are fond of slang and street talk and dialect.' In other words, it's a Pushcart of another kind, though without all the establishment figures. Many of the authors are residents of non-Arab countries, especially France, but most set their themes pointedly in Arab concerns. Among the highlights of the collection is a story by Syrian architect-turned-novelist Rosa Yassin Hassan, who depicts a young Darfurian refugee, a victim of torture, being interviewed for political asylum in Canada, one of many such exiles whose 'chances were few, their words for ever [sic] doubted.' Palestinian writer Islam Samhan delivers a poem that, as if in response to James Wright's 'A Mad Fight Song for William S. Carpenter', recounts the victim of a bombing: 'He enjoyed the phosphorus toys / that lit up brightly. / He didn't know / that he burnt up like a butterfly / without a sound.' The Dutch-Moroccan writer Abdelkader Benali imagines a young man, presumably much like himself, who has trouble wrapping his brain around the fact that his sister is outdoing him, appreciatively listening to his father mutter, 'Nobody wants to marry a woman who's had too much education. Educated women have loud mouths and opinions of their own.' And Algerian writer Abderrazak Boukebba delivers an odd allegory that enfolds the world of the exile abroad: 'The homeland is not the dust we are born on, but the memory of that dust that accompanies us' . . . [T]his is a well-made anthology, of much interest to students of world literature and of the contemporary Arab world."—Kirkus Reviews

"This fascinating collection of pieces by 39 young Arab voices from all over the world was put together by the Hay Festival in celebration of Beirut's 2009 selection as World Book Capital. Incorporating stories, poems, and novel excerpts, the enormously varied lineup includes Abdellah Taia's The Wounded Man, about a gay university student in Morocco watching a forbidden French film during Ramadan; an excerpt from Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmad Saadwi, in which a garbage-diver searches for the perfect nose to complete the hybrid body he's assembling; and Haneef from Glasgow by Mohammad Hassan, in which a Kashmiri immigrant is viewed through the eyes of his Saudi employers' son. Nazem El Sayed contributes delightfully compact revelations in his Thirteen Poems; Randa Jarrar takes a tender look at a Palestinian boy in 'The Story of My Building'; Hala Kawtharani explores the Beirut of the 1950s and '60s in 'Lebanon/Switzerland? Beirut/Paris?' . . . [I]nvolving and diverse."—Publishers Weekly



CONTENTS

Preface by Hanan al-Skaykh
Judges’ Announcement
Introduction by Abdo Wazen
Editor’s Note

Abdelaziz Errachidi
from the novel Bedouins on the Edge

Abedelkader Benali
from the novel The Trip to the Slaughterhouse

Abedllah Taia
The Wounded Man

Abederrahim Elkhassar
Amazigh

Abderrazak Boukebba
from the novel Skin of Shadow

Abdullah Thabit
from the novel The Twentieth Terrorist

Adania Shibli
At the Post Office

Ahmad Saadawi
from the novel Frankenstein in Baghdad

Ahmad Yamani
eight poems from The Utopia of Cemeteries

Ala Hlehel
Coexistance

Bassim al Ansar
Three Poems

Dima Wannous
Two Stories

Faïza Guène
Mimouna

Hala Kawtharani
Three Stories

Hamdy el Gazzar
from the novel Secret Pleasures

Hussein al Abri
from the novel The Last Hanging Poem

Hussein Jelaad
Three Poems

Hyam Yared
Layla’s Belly

Islam Samhan
Who Are You Carrying That Rose For?

Joumana Haddad
from the poem “The Geology of the I” in The Book of J

Kamel Riahi
from the novel The Scalpel

Mansour El Souwaim
from the novel The Threshold of Ashes

Mansoura Ez Eldin
The Path to Madness

Mohammad Hassan Alwan
Haneef from Glasgow

Mohammad Salah al Azab
A Boat That Dislikes the Ribverbank

Nagat Ali
four poems from Like the Blade of a Knife

Najwa Binshatwan
The Pools and the Piano

Najwan Darwish
Six Poems

Nazem El Sayed
Thirteen Poems

Rabee Jaber
from the novel America

Randa Jarrar
The Story of My Building

Rosa Yassin Hassan
Guardians of the Air

Samar Yezbek
from the novel The Scent of Cinnamon

Samer Abou Hawwash
Nine Poems

Wajdi al Ahdal
A Crime in Mataeem Street

Yahya Amqassim
from the novel Raven’s Leg

Yassin Adnan
Two Stories

Youssef Rakha
Suicide 20, or The Hakimi Maqama

Zaki Baydoun
Nine Poems

Notes on the Text
Notes on the Authors
Notes on the Translators