Gate
of the SunCalendar |
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Elias Khoury's Gate of the Sun (Bab al-Shams) is the first magnum opus of the Palestinian saga. Through the passing of the beloved midwife of the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, the reader enters a world of displacement, fear, and tenuous hope. A realigned 1001 Nights, a makeshift doctor tells stories to his comatose friend in an attempt to keep him alive. His patient, Yunes, is also from Galilee, where he left Nahla, the love of his life. The novel unfolds at his bedside through the storyteller's intimate and haunting flights of memory. Khoury humanizes the
Khoury opens up a whole new territory, a place where "us" and "them" are inextricably entwined; he takes us on a vast odyssey of horror and love. Originally published in Beirut in 1998, the novel has been a sensation throughout the Arab world, in Israel, and throughout Europe. Winner of the Prize of Palestine in 2000 and Le Monde Diplomatique's Book of the Year in 2002.
Read Jan. 15 New York Times feature about Elias Khoury.
Read a Feb. 24 Jewish Journal article about Gate of the Sun.
Click here for Naser Musa's bio.
"Because the world is the way it is, because whole groups of people can be maligned, neglected, ignored, for too many years, we need the voice of Elias Khoury—detailed, exquisite, humane—more than ever. Read him. Without fail, read him."—Naomi Shihab Nye
"Elias Khoury, along with Mahmoud Darwish, is an artist giving voice to rooted exiles and trapped refugees, to dissolving boundaries and changing identities, to radical demands and new languages. From this perspective Khoury's work bids Mahfouz an inevitable and yet profoundly respectful farewell."—Edward Said
"A vast canvas of the Palestinian exodus ... Times, places, people, and massacres are interwoven. The tales crisscross as they are barely concluded in an anarchical delirium, a means for the author to sketch in the chaos of Palestinian history. But more than a struggle for remembrance, his novel is also an ode to those wives, mothers and sisters who nourish, rear, care for, and hope."—www.paru.com
Read more on Elias Khoury:
Interview with Anton Shammas
Banipal Magazine
Ha'aretz,
Village Voice article by Ammiel Alcalay
Praise for the Israeli edition
"... a breathtaking epic poem."—Ha'aretz
“Bab al-Shams triggers on inner struggle for the Israeli reader who must open himself to the narrative of the other... If everything [Khoury] tells us is indeed true, it is obvious why we have preferred to cover our ears to this day... A book every Israeli must read."—Kol Ha'ir
“Andalus Publishing, that took on the nearly impossible task of bringing the important Arabic literary texts of the day to the Israeli reader, has done it again... Bab al-Shams is a window unto a culture so close yet so far away, unto our repressed memories, unto a shared past we never learned about. And despite this, it is not a book that is all politics or moralizing. No, Bab al-Shams is first of all one of the best reading-experiences a person can have in their life time.” —Ma'ariv
Gate of the Sun is a part of the Rainmaker Translations series, with the support of the International Institute of Modern Letters.
"Gate
of the Sun,"
Saturday., Feb. 25, 8:00 pm. A limited number of $100 sponsorships are
available that include • Two event tix and preferred seating •
a copy of Gate of the Sun • acknowledgment in the program
• private dinner salon with Elias Khoury the previous evening, Feb.
24. Sponsorships with all of the foregoing plus ad space in the program
are available for a contribution of $250.
Tickets are $20 general admission/$18 for members of Levantine Cultural
Center, and $15 for students. Seating is limited; advance purchase recommended,
or call 310.559.5544 to RSVP.
Levantine Cultural Center, 5920 Blackwelder Street, Culver City, CA 90232,
two blocks south of the major intersection of La Cienega Blvd. and Washington
Blvd., on the border of Los Angeles (La Cienega South exit from the 10
Fwy). For more information contact Levantine Cultural Center, 310.559.5544.
Write info@levantinecenter.org.
LEVANTINE
CULTURAL CENTER
Cultures of the Middle East & Mediterranean
5920 Blackwelder Street, Culver City, CA. 90232
310.559.5544, info@levantinecenter.org
Levantine Center advocates for, educates about, and in general promotes
and supports Middle Eastern and Mediterranean contemporary arts and traditional
cultures. We present or cosponsor programs of music, literature, art,
film/video, publications, new media and more, often from educational and
historical perspectives. While acknowledging the value of entertainment,
we emphasize scholarship and substance. We are strongly multidisciplinary
and non-sectarian, do not embrace any political or religious doctrine,
and are committed to the principle of cross-cultural cooperation. We support
the strengthening of ties between all cultural, ethnic and religious communities
of the Middle East/West Asia/Levant, as well as between all peoples of
Middle Eastern descent in diaspora.