Novel
Rama and the Dragon
رامة والتنين
Edwar al-Kharrat · 1980
Synopsis
Mikhail, a Copt, and Rama, a Muslim, love and tear each other apart in Egypt in the 1960s and 1970s, with returns to the 1940s. The novel proceeds through their dialogues, Rama's stream of consciousness and Mikhail's inner monologue, between Cairo, Alexandria and the Fayoum. Mikhail, who narrates, wonders whether he has killed the dragon or is living with it, a question the book leaves open. Pharaonic, Greek and Islamic myths blend with the real.
Context
The novel appeared in Beirut in 1980 and sold out as soon as it was published, according to ArabLit. Its fourteen chapters follow the order of memory rather than that of time: what counts is less succession than crystallisation, observes Ferial Ghazoul, who translated it into English with John Verlenden for AUC Press in 2002. Two sequels appeared sixteen years later and made it a trilogy. The Arab Writers Union has placed it among the hundred best Arab novels.
Who it is for
A demanding novel in a poetic language, built in fragments; translated into English, no French translation found.
Prizes and reception
For the Naguib Mahfouz Medal committee, “a breakthrough in the literary history of the modern Arabic novel”.
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