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Synopsis
This series is designed to bring to North American readers the once-unheard voices of writers who have achieved wide acclaim at home, but are not recognized beyond the borders of their native lands. With special emphasis on women writers, Interlink's Emerging Voices series publishes the best of the world's contemporary literature in translation or original English.
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About the Author
FADIA FAQIR is a Jordanian-British writer. She is the author of two other novels, Nisanit and Pillars of Salt. Brought up in Amman, Jordan, she lives with her husband in Durham, England. Visit her online atwww.fadiafaqir.com.
Review
This remarkable book by a brilliant Jordanian writer is part of Interlink's Emerging Voices: New International Fiction series, which also includes work from such other countries as Chile, Lebanon, Serbia, South Africa, Yemen and Turkey. Faqir's first novel, Nisanet (published by Viking), was hailed by critics for its "passionate, breathtaking, masterful style and powerful storytelling." Clearly, Faqir has not slacked off in her new novel, Pillars of Salt. Here she interweaves ancient Arabic storytelling traditions, with Muslim and Christian theological sources and modern facts, to capture an alternative picture of Jordanian history - the continuing repression of Arab women whose daily contributions to the nation's economy and struggle for independence are stifled in a male-dominated society. This is the story of two women, a Bedouin peasant named Maha from the Jordan Valley, and Um Saad, wife of a prosperous butcher in Amman. They are forced to share a room in the Amman mental hospital to which they have been confined before and after the British Mandate of 1921. At first, Um Saad refuses to speak with a "filthy Bedouin," but the two women gradually become friends, united in a fierce struggle to survive the inhuman rigors of the institution. The life stories they share with one another are simultaneously horrifying and mesmerizing. Maha's husband Harb, an heroic member of the Resistance, was the love of her life. After he is killed by the British, their love is not enough to protect her from the violence and repression that surround her. Um Saad yields, too, to the humiliation of her husband bringing home a new young wife. Faqir's masterful use of irony sets the tale's iconoclastic tone and relieves the characters' relentless pain. In the opening pages, for example, her storyteller, Sami al-Adjnabi, interrupts his smarmy invocation to "Allah the Beneficent" - a disingenuous patter we assume he obsequiously utters before any oral presentation - to say, "On second thoughts, it is my she-ass Aziza who should tell you this story. Faqir's story - most assured unlike any Sami has told ever before -about consequences endured by women who tell the truth is impossible to put down. --Independant Publisher
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- PublisherQuartet Books
- Publication date1996
- ISBN 10 0704302381
- ISBN 13 9780704302389
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages256
- Rating
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PILLARS OF SALT.
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Quartet Books,, London,, 1996
ISBN 10: 0704302381
ISBN 13: 9780704302389
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Paperback
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Seller: Burwood Books, Wickham Market, United Kingdom
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Paperback. Condition: Very Good. First U.k. Edition. Review copy. 8vo. pp. viii, 244. Paperback (no hardback edition in the UK). ISBN 0704302381 Presentation copy: 'To Malcolm and Elizabeth, Unlike Maha, the main character, I hope that your luck will be scattered in the right directions. Love Fadia 20/6/96.' Compliments slip from the University of Durham, Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, South End House, South Road, Durham DH1 3TG with a handwritten note from Fadia Faqir to Malcolm Bradbury undated and consisting of about 35 words (includes 'from Fadia' written in pencil in Bradbury's hand) in which she says she will be celebrating her engagement to Adel on 21/8/96 so keep the day free. She sends love to Bradbury and his wife Elizabeth. Quartet Books review slip loosely inserted stating the book is to be published on 28th March 1996. Typed signed letter from Quartet Books Limited, 51 Beak Street, London W1R 3LF to Michael Bradbury loosely inserted dated 15th March 1996 and consisting of about 210 words in which an outline of the story and details of the author who is working on her third novel and is teaching Arabic at Durham University are provided. Bradbury is then asked if he would be interested in doing an interview or review, signed by Susie Craigie Halkett, Publicity. 'A brilliant Jordanian writer', a quote by Bradbury heads the letter. Sir Malcolm Bradbury (1932 Ð 2000) was a British novelist ('The History Man'), academic and writer on English and American literature. Angus Wilson and Malcolm Bradbury co-founded the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia in 1970. Fadia Faqir (born 1956) is a Jordanian writer who was awarded her Ph.D. in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia in 1990. Very good. Very good. Signedes. Seller Inventory # C52726
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