The Dusk Visitor (Paperback)

Musa Al-Halool

ISBN 10: 1951082133 / ISBN 13: 9781951082130

Published by Cune Press,US, Washington state, 2022

About this Item

Paperback. A collection of 36 short stories from a Raqqa, Syria native whose home was commandeered by ISIS and later destroyed by coalition airstrikes.Musa Al-Halool developed these stories based on a sense of embitterment toward the Syrian regime. Now, after his country has fallen from the grips of an obtuse and rigidly bureaucratic state into the uncertainties of war . . . he presents his stories as the response of one still-same voice in the midst of madness.Musa Al-Halool's stories depict a Kafkaesque Middle Eastern world. The collection opens with eight political fables in a chapter titled Ratistan . . . or the country of Rats. These fables introduce themes which are picked up and developed in the later stories or simply serve as counterpoint to the longer pieces.The Dusk Visitor is an object lesson for Western readers. In just a few words, it invokes the warnings of Ernest Hemingway about the dangers of Fascism in 1920s Italy and the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s . . . that resulted in WWII. The author shows in compelling detail that Middle East dictators and the upside down world of security state rule in the Middle East are the reward for functioning civil societies where a few too many "good people" find it more convenient to collaborate rather than to resist.Western readers, in their arrogance, are accustomed to pity such dysfunctional societies. In The Dusk Visitor, the tables are turned. Musa Al-Halool forces us to look in the mirror: Middle Eastern style comical inanity and inefficiency as well as torture, mass murder, and other human rights horrors are just around the corner for the EU, UK, US, and other societies where it is OK to raise half-truths, lies, and exaggeration above traditional journalism, dilute the judiciary, gerrymander the election system, usher in strongmen who prefer to be rulers for life, and threaten legal action against one's political opponents.The Dusk Visitor is a MUST-READ for anyone concerned about the growth of subtle and overt fascism within modern civil society. Musa Al-Halool, from Raqqa Syria, has put together 36 tales on the subject of the Syrian Civil War, the Assad government, and the authoritarian style of other Arab dictators. The heart of The Dusk Visitor is short fiction that paints a dystopian landscape, Kafkaesque, life that appears to offer hope and yet is riven with absurdity, unfreedom, fear, and death. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781951082130

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Dusk Visitor (Paperback)
• Publisher: Cune Press,US, Washington state
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1951082133
• ISBN 13: 9781951082130
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

The Dusk Visitor is a bold, satirical, and deeply human collection of short stories that captures the surreal and tragicomic realities of contemporary Syria. Written by Musa Al-Halool, a Syrian professor and translator from Raqqa, the book blends political fables, folkloric vignettes, and poignant personal narratives to illuminate the absurdities of authoritarianism, the trauma of war, and the resilience of ordinary people.

Al-Halool's voice is sharp, melancholic, and often darkly humorous. His stories range from allegorical tales of rats founding nations to intimate sketches of families torn apart by conflict. With echoes of Jonathan Swift and Hemingway, and infused with the spirit of Syrian folklore, the collection critiques the cruelty of power and the complicity of silence, while never losing sight of the humanity at its core.

Whether mocking despots through animal parables or recounting the quiet heartbreak of exile, The Dusk Visitor is a literary act of resistance-an imaginative reckoning with the devastation of Syria and a tribute to those who endure it.

About the Author

Musa Al-Halool is a scholar, translator, and writer from Syria who has lived in Amman and now is based at Taif University in Saudi Arabia. He has translated to or from Arabic about 40 books. Musa Al-Halool and Sanna Dhahir translated from Arabic White Carnations, a collection of short stories about the Syrian revolution by Musa Rahum Abbas (also in the Cune Classics catalog).