Short stories
Sleepless Nights
سهرت منه الليالي
Ali Douagi · 1969
Synopsis
Short stories first published in the newspapers and magazines of Tunis, which the writer Ezzeddine Madani went in search of in order to collect them in a volume, with a long preface. They follow the ordinary people of the capital, whether ordinary or marginal, their setbacks and their failings, and draw from daily life a satire of injustice, hypocrisy and colonialism. The volume takes its title from one of them, borrowed from a song by Mohammed Abdel Wahab; another is entitled “Nezha raïka”.
Context
The collection appeared only in 1969, twenty years after its author's death, assembled by Ezzeddine Madani from old newspapers and reviews. The volume, of one hundred and twenty-seven pages, opens with a long introduction by Madani, and alternates literary Arabic and Tunisian dialect. A film and a play have been drawn from his stories. William Granara translated it into English in 1991; no French translation of the volume is known to the BnF.
Who it is for
Brief short stories, in a learned language interspersed with Tunis speech, driven by a humour that spares no one.
Prizes and reception
Translated into English by William Granara; two of his short stories have been adapted.