Novel
Talismano
Abdelwahab Meddeb · 1979
Synopsis
A Tunisian writer based in Paris returns to Tunis and walks through the city of his youth, as it is and as it was, built half from memories and half from imagination. Other cities and other eras, including Fez, mingle with his impressions, and the figures of Arab-Muslim legends return, effaced by a Maghreb won over by the West. In the course of a wandering lasting about a day, sensual and violent scenes alternate with thoughts on the act of writing, which the walk constantly doubles.
Context
The novel appeared in Paris from Christian Bourgois, in two hundred and seventy-six pages; the Bibliothèque nationale de France dates this edition to 1978, while biographical notices give 1979. A second revised edition followed from Sindbad in 1987, in the collection “La Bibliothèque arabe”. Travel and diary are reflected in it, and the prose accumulates references, from the Quran to Dante, to Joyce and to the theology of ancient Egypt, mingling Islamic, Judeo-Christian and profane heritages. Jane Kuntz translated it into English for Dalkey Archive Press in 2011.
Who it is for
A demanding novel, with a dense language laden with references, for readers prepared to follow a journey without a classical narrative thread.
Prizes and reception
Often described as a founding text of avant-garde postcolonial fiction in French; translated into English in 2011.
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