Research Catalog

Title

Madinah : city stories from the Middle East / edited by Joumana Haddad.

Publication

[Manchester, England] : Comma, 2008.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Ḥaddād, Jumānah Sallūm

Description

xv, 173 p. : ill., maps; 20 cm.

Summary

‘Madinah’ – the Arabic word for ‘city’ – may conjure labyrinthine streets and the hustle and bustle of the souq in Westerners’ minds, but for the inhabitants of the Middle East it is a much more mercurial thing, and one that’s changing today faster than ever.Here – in ten urban stories set across the region – the city reveals itself through a vibrant array of characters: from the celebrated author collecting an award in the city that exiled him decades before, to the forlorn lover waiting at a rendezvous as government officials raid nearby shops, confiscating ‘wanton’ Valentine’s Day roses.Whilst engineers race to complete another ‘world’s tallest building’ in Dubai, and American helicopters patrol the Martyrs Bridge in Baghdad, we realise it is the people, and not the landmarks, that define these places; like the language student in Beirut who tries to make a joke of being ‘war-broken’ to her friends, or the Israeli General who invites guests to his office to watch promo videos for the tank that will ‘win the next war’ whilst eating biscuits and reciting poetry.For all we think we know of the conflict and exoticism of the region, nothing opens more doors to what we don’t than its writing. Here, ten short stories by new and established writers have been selected and translated in English for the first time, to open just such a door…

Subject

• Short stories > Translations into English
• Middle East > Fiction

Genre/Form

• Fiction
• Fiction.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Language (note)

• Translated into English from more than one language.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction / Joumana Haddad -- The award / Nedim Gürsel ; trans. Aron Aji -- City of crimson / Nabil Sulayman ; trans. Nancy Roberts -- Living it up (and down) in Beirut / Joumana Haddad -- The passport / Ala Hlehel ; trans. Alice Guthrie -- Meningitis / Yitzhak Laor ; trans. Yael Manor -- Midnight on the outside / Gamal al-Ghitani ; trans. R. Neil Hewison -- Amman's birds sweep low / Elias Farkouh ; trans. William M. Hutchins -- There's no room for a lover in this city / Yousef al-Mohaimeed ; trans. Anthony Calderbank -- The week before the wife arrived / Fadwa al-Qasem -- The reality and the record / Hassan Blasim ; trans. Jonathan Wright -- Authors -- Translators.

ISBN

• 9781905583201 (pbk.)
• 1905583206 (pbk.)

OCLC

• 237196635
• SCSB-12530709

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library