Short stories
Le voyage de Râ
Not translated into English
Nabil Naoum · 1988
Synopsis
A collection of short stories translated from Arabic, published first in French. The stories are not summarised; according to the presentation by the Berlin international literature festival, the author's prose uses a subtle, objective irony, dwells little on places and on the characters' psychology, and lets meaning emerge gradually from a linear narrative with unexpected, sometimes disturbing turns.
Context
The volume appeared in Arles from Actes Sud in 1988, translated from the Arabic by Philippe Cardinal and Luc Barbulesco; the BnF catalogues it as a story collection and knows of no Arabic title for it. Other books by the author have followed in French, translated notably by Richard Jacquemond and Anne Wade Minkowski. From 2000, the author sat on the selection committee of the Biennale des cinémas arabes of the Institut du monde arabe.
Who it is for
A collection of short stories in French, of about two hundred pages, written in a restrained, ironic style.
Prizes and reception
Short stories by an Egyptian writer whom French readers have been able to read in translation since 1988.