The committee of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) announced the shortlist for its second Arabic Booker prize awards, which includes works by two Egyptian writers.
This year’s shortlist gathers six works from around the Arab world: “Al Gou’ (Hunger) by Mohamed Al-Bosaty, “Azazel (Beelzebub) by Youssef Zidan, both from Egypt, “Zamn Al-Kheyoul Al-Baydaa (Time of White Horses) by Jordanian-Palestinian Ibrahim Nasrallah, “Rawayeh Marie-Claire (The Scents of Marie-Claire) by Al-Habib Al-Salmy from Tunis, “Al-Motargem Al-Khaen (The Unfaithful Translator) by Fawwaz Hadad from Syria, and “Al-Hafeeda Al-Amrikeya (The American Granddaughter) by Inaam Kachachi from Iraq.
The prize was launched in 2007 in association with the famous Booker Prize Foundation and with the support of the Emirates Foundation. According to its official webpage, the prize “aims to recognize and reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing and to encourage wider readership of such Arabic literature internationally through translation.
Last month, the panel of judges from five different nations met in London to decide on the shortlist from a selection of 121 entries from 16 countries. The shortlist was revealed by the chair of judges, Youmna Al-Eid, at a press conference in London’s Southbank Centre.
“The Foundation is delighted to see this particularly noteworthy shortlist for the 2009 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, following the competitive long-list issued by the judges last month. We are proud to continue our support for IPAF in 2009, especially after its successful launch earlier this year, commented Ahmed Ali Al-Sayegh, the managing director of the Emirates Foundation.
This 2009 winner will be announced at an awards ceremony in Abu Dhabi on Monday, March 16, few days prior to the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. The shortlisted authors will each receive $10,000 while the winner will be granted an additional $50,000.
Works of all six writers are expected to be translated next year. Last year’s winner “Wahet El-Ghoroub (Sunset Oasis) by Egyptian novelist Bahaa Taher has already been translated into English by Humphrey Davies and is set to be published in the UK by Sceptre (an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton Ltd) later in the summer.
The shortlist in a nutshell
“Hunger is a detailed account of the lives of rural Egypt’s destitute inhabitants, sufferers of the never-ending hunger.
“Azazel chronicles the spiritual battle of a Coptic monk in the fifth century amidst a wave of heretics’ prosecution by the Church.
“Time of White Horses tells the story of three generations of one Palestinian family in a small village, charting the aftermath of the Ottoman rule, the British Mandate and the Nakba, and the post-Nakba era via a detailed account that recalls Naguib Mahfouz’s “Cairo Trilogy.
“The Scents of Marie-Claire explores the cultural divide between the east and the west through the relationship between a Tunisian man and a French woman as viewed by the man.
“The Unfaithful Translator is written in the form of scattered meanderings of a translator accused of treason due to his non-conformist views on the purpose of translation and the importance of creativity, culture and civilization.
“The American Granddaughter documents the American occupation of Iraq through the eyes of a young American-Iraqi woman, who returns to her country as an interpreter for the US Army.
In the next few weeks, Daily News Egypt will review the short-listed novels for the Arabic Booker prize. We start this week with Mohamed Al-Bosaty’s “Hunger.
