Research Catalog
واحة الغروب : رواية / بهاء طاهر.
- Title
- واحة الغروب : رواية / بهاء طاهر.
- Wāḥat al-ghurūb : riwāyah / Bahāʼ Ṭāhir.
- Author
- Publication
- بيروت : دار الآداب للنشر و التوزيع، 2007.
- Bayrūt : Dār al-Ādāb lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʻ, 2007.
Items in the Library & Off-site
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1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Request in advance | PJ7864.A357 W347 2007 | Off-site |
Details
- Description
- 390 p.; 20 cm.
- Summary
- ""When Mahmoud Abd El Zahir is sent to govern the remote Egyptian oasis of Siwa in the late 1890s, he knows the danger he faces - two of his predecessors were murdered. But having been accused of disloyalty to the current regime and its British overlords, he has little choice. Rather than stay behind in Cairo, his Irish wife Catherine insists on going too, hoping to reinvigorate their relationship." "Once at Siwa, Mahmoud finds himself not only fiercely resented but caught between two warring factions, while Catherine, with her Western ways and seemingly avaricious interest in the local archaeological sites, succeeds in alienating the entire community - all except for a beautiful young woman, herself an outcast, whose attempt at friendship spells disaster." "In this fascinating novel, Bahaa Taher weaves together several voices to capture a society at war with itself and a marriage in trouble. At once a complex tale of love and an exploration of power, occupation and rebellion, SUNSET OASIS tells of people struggling to free themselves from the grip of the past. It is a striking, haunting work by one of the Arab world's most celebrated writers."--Jacket
- "The desert is a space in which people discover themselves, ' says the author Bahaa Taher, and the desert is where his novel Sunset Oasis is set, in the last years of the 19th century. It depicts the life of a middle-aged government official, Mahmoud Abd el Zahir, who is sent by his British superiors to govern the oasis of Siwa as a punishment for his involvement in the failed Urabi revolt in 1882. Frustrated by the failure of the revolution and experiencing a gradual draining of his intimate feelings for his wife, Mahmoud decides to accept the mission, away from both scenes: the scene of his failed revolution and that of his failing intimate life. Except that his wife decides to accompany him, on a mission of her own, to follow the footsteps of Alexander the Great. His desperate attempts to discourage her fail, and he ends up followed by the shadow of his troubled emotions on a journey he originally wanted to use 'to discover himself', as the author puts it. In Siwa Mahmoud faces yet another betrayal and a defeat on two levels: professional and emotional. He discovers that his deputy has been regularly sending reports to his supervisors about his failure to handle the locals, who revolt against him. On the emotional level his marriage hits the rocks, his feelings for his wife become more uncertain than ever, and he doesn't even make serious attempts to hide this, though the issue is never explicit. Amidst this gloomy scene the author plants some bright elements that promise hope, some positive characters that seem to shift the course of events in a less tragic direction. In Sunset Oasis we meet Sheikh Yehya, with his reconciliatory attitude and healing skills; his beautiful niece Maleeka, the free spirit, and Catherine's sister, Fiona, who comes to the oasis in hope of a cure for her tuberculosis and 'can talk with the troops and the Siwan women and the Bedouin women and their children'. Yet by the end the destructive elements have prepared a tragic scene, and the hope proves to be 'mirage in the oasis'"--Viewed on the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) site, 6/2/2016
- Subject
- Genre/Form
- Arabic language materials.
- Fictional Work
- Fiction
- Historical fiction
- History
- Novels
- Romans.
- Note
- Novel.
- Processing Action (note)
- committed to retain
- OCLC
- 145074563
- SCSB-10887042
- Owning Institutions
- Harvard Library