Beirut 39 New Writing from the Arab World

by Shimon, Samuel; Maalouf, Amin; Ben Jelloun, Tahar

• ISBN13: 9781608192021
• ISBN10: 1608192024
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-06-08
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Summary

Beirut is the 2009 World Book Capital, as designated by UNESCO, and at the center of the festivities, in collaboration with the world-renowned Hay Festival, is a competition to identify the thirty-nine most promising young talents in Arab literature. The selection of the "Beirut 39" follows the success of a similar competition in the 2007 World Book Capital, Bogota, celebrating achievements in Latin American literature. This year, for the first time, the winners?nominated by publishers, literary critics, and readers across the Arab world and internationally, and selected by a panel of eminent Arab writers, academics, and journalists?will be published together in a one-of-a-kind anthology. Edited by Samuel Shimon ofBanipalmagazine, the collection will be published simultaneously in Arabic and English throughout the world by Bloomsbury and Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing. Beirut 39provides an important look at the Arab-speaking world today, through the eyes of thirty-nine of its brightest young literary stars.

Author Biography

Samuel Shimon is the cofounder and deputy editor of Banipal, a highly respected magazine of new Arab writing in English translation. He is also the founder and editor of Kikah, the most popular cultural Web site in Arabic. His autobiographical novel An Iraqi in Paris was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. v
Judges' Announcement	p. xi
Introduction	p. xiii
Editor's Note	p. xv
from the novel Bedouins on the Edge	p. 1
from the novel The Trip to the Slaughterhouse	p. 8
The Wounded Man	p. 17
Amazigh	p. 24
from the novel Skin of Shadow	p. 28
from the novel The Twentieth Terrorist	p. 34
At the Post Office	p. 43
from the novel Frankenstein in Baghdad	p. 51
eight poems from The Utopia of Cemeteries	p. 57
Coexistence	p. 62
Three Poems	p. 68
Two Stories	p. 72
Mimouna	p. 82
Three Stories	p. 92
from the novel Secret Pleasures	p. 98
from the novel The Last Hanging Poem	p. 109
Three Poems	p. 118
Layla's Belly	p. 123
Who Are You Carrying That Rose For?	p. 128
from the poem 'The Geology of the I' in The Book of J	p. 131
from the novel The Scalpel	p. 137
from the novel The Threshold of Ashes	p. 146
The Path to Madness	p. 155
Haneef from Glasgow	p. 161
A Boat That Dislikes the Riverbank	p. 168
four poems from Like the Blade of a Knife	p. 175
The Pools and the Piano	p. 182
Six Poems	p. 194
Thirteen Poems	p. 198
from the novel America	p. 204
The Story of My Building	p. 215
Guardians of the Air	p. 223
from the novel The Scent of Cinnamon	p. 230
Nine Poems	p. 237
A Crime in Mataeem Street	p. 242
from the novel Raven's Leg	p. 255
Two Stories	p. 264
Suicide 20, or The Hakimi Maqama	p. 272
Nine Poems	p. 282
Notes on the Text	p. 287
Notes on the Authors	p. 295
Notes on the Translators	p. 301
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.