Welcome
to the BookGroup!
(Love Books? We Seek New Co-Chairs to Lead the Group; email us!)
With her first novel, In the Eye of the Sun, Ahdaf Soueif garnered compari-sons to Tolstoy, Flaubert, and George Eliot. In her latest novel, which was shortlisted for Britain's prestigious Booker Prize, she combines the romantic skill of the nineteenth-century novelists with a very modern sense of culture and politics—both sexual and international.
At either end of the twentieth century, two women fall in love with men outside their familiar worlds. Joining the romance and intricate storytelling of A.S. Byatt's Possession and Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, Ahdaf Soueif has once again created a mesmerizing tale of genuine eloquence and lasting importance.
Ahdaf Soueif's new novel is a story of what it is to be divided, poised between two lives. She explores the changing relationship between Egypt and Britain in the twentieth century and tells the compelling story of a doomed cross-cultural love affair, recreating the Romantic Hero of Byronic legend in an utterly original contemporary style.
Ahdaf Soueif was born in Egypt in 1950. From the age of four to eight, she lived in England while her mother studied for her PhD at London University, learning to read from English classics, Little Grey Rabbit, and English comics, as well as The Arabian Nights. She returned to England in 1973 to study for a doctorate in linguistics at Lancaster University. Her first book was a collection of short stories, Aisha, published in 1983 and shortlisted for The Guardian Fiction Award. She has since written In the Eye of the Sun (Bloomsbury 1992) and Sandpiper (Bloomsbury 1996). She is married to the poet and biographer Ian Hamilton, has two children and now divides her time between England and Egypt.
Recommended reading, along with The Map of Love:
"Publishing in the West: Problems and Prospects For Arab Women Writers"
By Amal Amireh, Al Jadid Magazine
More about the author:
Arab World books
Contemporary Writers
Read a book review by Andrea Perkins
Levantine BookGroup, Thursday, May 22, 8 pm. Reservations strongly recommended, call 323.650.7010. At 10469 Santa Monica Blvd., LA 90025, just west of Beverly Glen, in the blue Pacific Arts Center building, just west of the McDonald's. Street parking.Our April 2003 BookGroup Selection
We discussed Diana Abu-Jaber's new novel, Crescent (W.W. Norton, April 2003), both appreciating and arguing over it!
You can order your copy now from Barnes & Nobels, Borders or Amazon—copies are already in stores.
"—An Iraqi love feast spiced with despair;
a culinary romance set in a Middle Eastern cafe..."
The story takes place in Los Angeles, but like the rest of us at the moment, every character is fixated on the Middle East.
Read Andrea Shalal-Esa's feature on Diana Abu-Jaber in Al Jadid magazine.
• Read a review by Ron Charles in the
Christian Science Monitor
• Read more about Diana Abu-Jaber.
• Check out a Q & A.
Diana Abu-Jaber appears at the Center on Wednesday, May 7, 8:30 pm, for a reading and booksigning.We Have Read
THE CYCLIST by Viken Berberian (Simon & Schuster, 2002), 188 pp., $22.00. Order your copy today!
The Cyclist, by Viken Berberian, is January 2003's selection!
The BookGroup meets Thursday, January 23—8 pm, at the Center,
10469 Santa Monica Blvd.Terrorist or trickster?
Viken Berberian’s novel is an original meditation on food and terrorism and cycling. “Combining surrealism, tragedy and humor, The Cyclist is a journey into the unsettling workings of the terrorist mind. Even as the narrator ponders his mission, only his musings about food and love reveal clues to his nationality and his agenda. But can such a zestful connaisseur also be a true agent of political violence?"
"Seductive, insidious, upsetting and completely satifying...an intoxicating cocktail."
—Eric Bogosian
"The Cyclist is at once terrifying and hilarious. It is not a defense of terrorism but instead the tale of an endearing and conflicted character that will undoubtedly remain in the mind of the reader long after finishing the novel."
—Sarah Rachel Egelman
December's selection was I, the Divine, by Rabih Alameddine
The BookGroup met
on the third Thursday of
the month—December 19, 8 pmI, the Divine. "As a Lebanese woman growing up in Beirut and now living in America, Sarah searches for a way to tell her story. She begins a memoir, a novel - and abandons every attempt at the first chapter. As first chapter follows first chapter, I, the Divine builds up a rich portrait, not only of Sarah but of her extraordinary extended hybrid family formed by divorce and remarriage, of Beirut at wartime, of her mother's suicide, her sister's madness, her ex-husbands, her son. I, the Divine works wonderfully, building up layers of Sarah's story in a manner which is subtle, fresh, intriguing and accessible. We are left with a portrait of a dignified, passionate and determined woman who is trying to carve a fragile peace for herself despite growing up amidst political turmoil and deadly struggle. RABIH ALAMEDDINE was born in Beirut and now lives in San Francisco. His first book, Koolaids, was published to widespread critical acclaim. He is also a world-famous painter and artist and has exhibited in London, New York and Paris amongst other major cities." —Edwina Johnson
November's selection was Only in London, by Hanan Al-Shaykh
The BookGroup met
on the third Thursday of
the month—Nov 21, 8 pm
Thursday
The BookGroup will read two Beiruti novelists, both living abroad for a number of years, one still writing in Arabic (Al-Shaykh) and the other now writing in English. Read a review of Only In London in the Cairo Times.
November 21, 2002, 8 pm
Only In London
by Hanan Al-Shaykh
Hanan al-Shaykh is among the foremost writers of the Arab world. She was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1945. She worked from 1966 to 1975 as a journalist in Beirut before turning to writing fiction. Her novels, which are written in Arabic, include The Story of Zahra, Women of Sand and Myrrh, Beirut Blues, and Only in London, all of which are available in English translation. Her excellent story collection, I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops, is highly recommended. She lives in London. Read more about her.
In October we read and discussed Memory in the Flesh, the fine Algerian novel by Ahlam Mosteghanemi, winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature.
For a critical review of Memory in the Flesh, see Kim Jensen's review in Al Jadid.
Mahmoud Darwish, Adunis poetry
This was our August selection! The BookGroup, originally launched last fall, begans the new season reading a classic of Palestinian literature, the novella by poet and fiction writer Ghassan Kafanani. Men in the Sun recounts the journey of a group of Palestinian immigrants escaping to Kuwait in a water tank. The book also contains several compelling short stories, such as "Letter From Gaza," which is still relevant today. Kanafani inspired an entire generation of Arab poets. The BookGroup is back in style, meeting every third Thursday, Aug. 22, Sept. 19, Oct. 17, 2002 at the Center, 10469 Santa Monica Blvd., just west of Beverly Glen in Century City! 310.481.9966. There is no cost, of course, and all are welcome. To sign up, just send us an email with your name and phone number, or call 323.650.7010.
The Bookgroup includes a diverse group of Angelenos, spanning a wide range of ages, backgrounds, professions and cultures who are setting out to explore the excellent adventures of Middle Eastern fiction writers, from countries including Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Iran, Palestine, Israel, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, but also minority cultures including Kurdish, Armenian, and others. The Bookgroup is cosponsored by Al Jadid Magazine.
Coming Soon: comments and musings about Middle East fiction and poetry, and a recommended bibliography...Your contributions are invited. Email to bookgroup@levantinecenter.org.
Books We Have Read
The Secret Life of Saeed The Pessoptimist (Interlink Books, 1999) by Emile Habiby translated by Salma Khadra Jayyusi and Trevor LeGassick
"In Arabic Habiby had no precursors, and has had no successors-acknowledging his debt to Voltaire and Swift, he has proved inimitable." -Middle East Magazine
This contemporary classic, the story of a Palestinian who becomes a citizen of Israel, combines fact and fantasy, tragedy and comedy. Saeed is the comic hero, the luckless fool, whose tale tells of aggression and resistance, terror and heroism, reason and loyalty that typify the hardships and struggles of Arabs in Israel.
An informer for the Zionist state, his stupidity, candor, and cowardice make him more of a victim than a villain; but in a series of tragicomic episodes, he is gradually transformed from a disaster-haunted, gullible collaborator into a Palestinian-no hero still, but a simple man intent on survival and, perhaps, happiness.
The author's own anger and sorrow at Palestine's tragedy and his acquaintance with the absurdities of Israeli politics (he was once a member of Israel's parliament himself) are here transmuted into satire both biting and funny. Translated by Anton Shammas into Hebrew, The Secret Life of Saeed won Israel's foremost Prize for Literature; a stage version played to great acclaim for a decade.
Emile Habiby was one of Israel's best-known Arab journalists and writers. He has published several highly acclaimed novels and plays and his work has been translated into German, French, and Hebrew. Habiby died in 1996. Salma Khadra Jayyusi is one of the Arab world's most distinguished literary personalities and is widely known for her poetry and literary criticism. Trevor LeGassick, scholar and professor of Arabic liteature at the University of Michigan, has translated many novels and edited an anthology of modern Arabic prose.
Levantine Cultural brought together four of the poets in this volume in Los Angeles in November, 2001 (click here to learn more). Arab women poets work within one of the oldest literary traditions in the world, yet they are virtually unknown in the West. Uniting Arab women poets from all over the Arab world and abroad - whatever their language, and whether they were born in an Arab country or in the diaspora - editor Nathalie Handal put together an outstanding collection from North Africa, the Levant, and the Arabian Gulf, as well as Europe, the United States and Canada. This anthology introduces poets who write in Arabic, French, English, and Swedish, among them some of the twentieth century's most accomplished poets and today's most exciting new voices. The introduction provides a historical overview for understanding contemporary Arab women's poetry, including the singularity as well as the shared trends and movements in the work of these poets.
Translated by distinguished translators and poets from around the world, The Poetry of Arab Women (Interlink Books, 2001) showcases the work of 82 poets, among them: Elmaz Abi-Nader, Fawziyya Abu-Khalid, Etel Adnan, 'Aisha Arnaout, Andree Chedid, Nada al-Hage, Dima Hilal, Hoda Hussein, Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Joanna Kadi, Fatma Kandil, Venus Khoury-Ghata, Nazik al-Mala'ika, Houda al-Na'mani, Lisa Suhair Majaj, Zakiyya Malallah, D.H.Melhem, Naomi Shihab Nye, Amina Said, Munia Samara, Deema Shehabi, Lina Tibi and Fadwa Tuqan. Nathalie Handal divides her time between Boston and London, where she is a researcher in the English department at the University of London. She is the author of a book of poetry, The Never Field, and a poetry CD, Traveling Rooms.
The Days of Miracles and Wonders An Epic of the New World Disorder (Interlink Books, 1998) by Simon Louvish "...The literary equivalent of a double espresso." -- Literary Review (London) The Days of Miracles and Wonders is Louvish's most ambitious novel to date, ranging across history's follies, past and present. From his tomb in Fontevraud, the Crusader King Richard the Lionheart rises to face the modern world at the brink of the West's Gulf War against Saddam Hussein of Iraq. It weaves a tangled web of East and West, of new crusades fought on prime time television, of medieval Caliphs springing to life, of madness and sanity in the "New World Order." Tragedy, comedy and farce intermingle in a tale of ordinary and extraordinary people, as the "smart bombs" of post-modern technology rush towards their apocalyptic tryst with Baghdad, the stubborn dreamland of the Arabian Nights. It is a story as old as the Bible and the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh, and as modern as tomorrow morning's headlines.
Simon Louvish is the author of nine critically acclaimed novels, including The Silencer which is also published by Interlink. His definitive biography of W.C. Fields, Man on the Flying Trapeze, was recently published by W.W. Norton.
The Abductor by Leila Marouane (Interlink Books, 2000)
"A little jewel of a book, The Abductor is a unique novel that stands out on the Algerian literary landscape." -Le Nouvel Observateur
Mrs. Nayla Zeitoun has just been informed by her son Omar that she has become a grandmother for the first time. In the ensuing excitement, he mentions the baby's weight whereupon Mrs. Zeitoun flies out of the house with a handful of salt to dispel the evil eye. It is a belief that if a baby's weight is known at large, the child will be cursed with bad luck. Her daughters watch in astonishment for Mrs. Zeitoun has never left the house unaccompanied by a male member of the family. They await the return of their father in silence and trepidation.
When Mr. Zeitoun learns of his wife's absence he turns to violence before he repudiates her three times upon her return. According to Islamic law he is unable to remarry his wife unless she is married and divorced to someone else. He convinces an unassuming neighbor, who happens to be a bachelor, to marry his wife with the understanding that after three months he will divorce her so she can then remarry Mr. Zeitoun. Mr. Zeitoun thought that he had taken care of the laws of God and society, yet he had not anticipated the turn of events his plan would take.
Leila Marouane was born in Algeria in 1960. She has worked as a journalist in Algiers, Berlin, Zurich and Paris. She is now living in France.
This Side of Innocence (Interlink Books, 2001) by Rachid al-Daif
'Who tore down the picture?' That is the whole story, from A to Z. They wanted to know who tore down the picture." So opens Rachid Al-Daif's This Side of Innocence, the story of one man's run-in with the secret police of his unnamed, war-torn country. In ironic contrast with Al-Daif's typically clear and frank literary style, this unreliable, "innocent" narrator relates more than an A-to-Z tale. The novel's real story is about the deeply obscure events of a personal encounter with tyranny - the tyranny of the instability and chaos of a country at war with itself and consequently preyed upon by internal and external forces. In the end, we are left with the story of how one man (or country) can, innocently, invent his own executioner.
Rachid Al-Daif is the celebrated author of eleven works of fiction and poetry. He is best known internationally for his novel Dear Mr. Kawabata (1995), which has been translated into eight European languages. He lives in Beirut, Lebanon, where he teaches Arabic Literature at the Lebanese University.
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