Novel · A way to begin
You as of Today My Homeland
أنت منذ اليوم
Tayseer Sboul · 1968
Synopsis
Arabi, an ordinary man with a symbolic name, leaves his village to study in the city. The narrative follows his passage through Arab history, from the Palestine war of 1948 to the defeat of 1967 as seen from Jordan: a tyrannical father, the hypocrisy of the parties, the confusion of the university and failed loves. An alternating narration, sometimes in the third person, sometimes in the first, gradually brings the two voices together until the dejection of an entire nation.
Context
In 1968 the book received the prize of the Lebanese daily an-Nahar for the best Arabic novel. Critics see in it a postmodern work, which breaks with the construction of the classical Arabic novel by interweaving voices. Nesreen Akhtarkhavari translated it into English in 2016 for Michigan State University Press, with two of the author's short stories, under the title You as of Today My Homeland.
Who it is for
A short novel in Arabic, of about ninety pages in translation; the fragmented narration demands attention.
Prizes and reception
An-Nahar Prize in 1968; the novel is regarded as one of the most accurate accounts of its time.
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