The Critical Case of a Man Called K

SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC FICTION

A sensitive and at times darkly humorous story of a young man’s experience of illness, his contemplation of death, and his determination to maintain his independence through it all

After reading Kafka, K decides to write his own diary, but he is constantly frustrated by his lack of experiences: he is worn down by the drudgery of his corporate job for a faceless corporation and by his incessant family obligations.

When he receives the news that he has leukemia, he finds himself torn between a sense of devastation and a revelation that he has finally found a way out of his writing predicament. Through Mohammed’s measured but forceful writing, this compelling debut has a universality that reaches across time, place, and culture.

Aziz Mohammed is a Saudi literary author, born in Khobar City in 1987. His debut novel The Critical Case of a Man Called K was published in 2017 and was shortlisted in 2018 for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, known as the “Arabic Booker.” He was the youngest and the first debut author to be shortlisted in the history of this prestigious prize. He has since participated in cultural programs of literary festivals, book fairs, and cultural centers all around the Middle East as a literary author and cinema critic.

Humphrey Davies is an award-winning literary translator of Arabic into English. He received first class honors in Arabic at Cambridge University and holds a doctorate in Near East Studies from the University of California at Berkeley. He has won and been shortlisted for numerous literary prizes, and has twice been awarded the prestigious Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation. He has translated Naguib Mahfouz, Elias Khoury, Mourid Barghouti, Alaa Al-Aswany, and Bahaa Taher, among others. He lives in Cairo, Egypt.