I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops

by AL-SHAYKH, HANAN

• ISBN13: 9780385491273
• ISBN10: 0385491271
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1998-08-17
• Publisher: Anchor

Summary

Since the U.S. publication ofWomen of Sand and Myrrh--which has now sold more than 35,000 copies and was selected as one of the Fifty Best Books of 1992 by Publishers Weekly--Hanan al-Shaykh has attracted an ever larger following for her dazzling tales of contemporary Arab women. In these seventeen short stories--eleven of which are appearing in English for the first time--al-Shaykh expands her horizons beyond the boundaries of Lebanon, taking us throughout the Middle East, to Africa, and finally to London. Stylistically diverse, her stories are often about the shifting and ambiguous power relationships between different cultures--as well as between men and women. Often compared to both Margaret Atwood and Margaret Drabble, Hanan al-Shaykh is "a gifted and courageous writer" (Middle Eastern International).

Author Biography

Hanan al-Shaykh, an award-winning journalist, novelist, and playwright, is the author of the short story collection I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops; the novels One Thousand and One Nights, The Story of Zahra, Women of Sand and Myrrh, Beirut Blues, and Only in London; and a memoir about her mother, The Locust and the Bird. She was raised in Beirut, educated in Cairo, and lives in London.

Table of Contents

A Season of Madness	1	(10)
The Spirit to Engaged Now (Do You Want to Hold?)	11	(20)
The Marriage Fair	31	(14)
The Land of Dreams	45	(42)
Place de la Catastrophe	87	(6)
I Don't Want to Grow Up	93	(16)
I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops	109	(26)
The Funfair	135	(18)
The White Peacock of Holland Park	153	(10)
An Unreal Life	163	(24)
The Scratching of Angels' Pens	187	(8)
Cupid Complaining to Venus	195	(14)
Qut al-Qulub	209	(22)
The Holiday	231	(12)
Do You Know Someone Who Can Teach Me the Piano?	243	(6)
The Keeper of the Virgins	249	(14)
The Land of the Sun	263