Novel · A way to begin
The Hostage
الرهينة
Zayd Mutee Dammaj · 1984
Synopsis
In the Yemen of Imam Yahya, a boy of about twelve is taken hostage to guarantee his family's loyalty. First shut up in the fortress of al-Qahira, he is sent to the governor's palace in Taiz to serve as a duwaydar, a serving boy who is at once prisoner and domestic. He shares the room of an older one, the handsome duwaydar, who initiates him into the secrets of this function and into desire, while Sharifa Hafsa, the governor's divorced sister, claims him in turn; he struggles between desire and revolt.
Context
The novel appeared in 1984, from Dar al-Adab in Beirut, and the Arab Writers Union placed it among the hundred best Arabic novels of the twentieth century. The action is set in 1948, and the narrative, direct in its telling, obliquely criticises the absolute power and corruption of the imamate. May Jayyusi and Christopher Tingley translated it into English. In French, a first translation appeared under the title Al Rahîna, l'otage, then Nada Ghosn retranslated it for Éditions Zoé.
Who it is for
A short first-person novel, written in a direct style; Nada Ghosn's translation is the easiest to find.
Prizes and reception
It is counted among the most celebrated works of Yemeni literature, and it is read in German, Russian and Hindi.