Novel
ثقب في رداء الليل
Not translated into English
Synopsis
A hole in the cloak of the night: the eldest son of a Najdi merchant, young Issa follows his family, which leaves the Najd for a village, then for a city, as the affairs of an authoritarian father dictate. Torn between two societies, he neglects his studies and falls secretly in love with his neighbour, a love that custom condemns. With his comrades, he is soon drawn, despite himself, into the political agitation against the British occupation, in the time of the Second World War and the years that follow it.
Context
Published in 1961, the year 1381 of the hegira, the novel ranks among the first of modern Saudi literature, and Arabpedia makes it the best known of its author. The Riyadh Review of Books reads in it the effect of rapid modernisation on a traditional society; Yahya Dahami places it among the founding works, which moved the Saudi novel from an educational form to a modern one. In al-Jazirah, in 2000, Ahmad Ibrahim Ahmad read it as a novel of formation close to autobiographical testimony, with a loose plot and schematic secondary characters, and noted the misprints of the printing.
Who it is for
A realist coming-of-age narrative, told in the third person; no French or English translation has been found.
Prizes and reception
In 2024, a critical review from Riyadh placed it among the classic Saudi narratives of identity and transformation.
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