The Book of Khartoum

The Book of Khartoum
Author :
Publisher : Comma Press
Total Pages : 96
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781905583720
ISBN-13 : 1905583729
Rating : 4/5 (729 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Book of Khartoum by : Ali al-Makk

Download or read book The Book of Khartoum written by Ali al-Makk and published by Comma Press. This book was released on 2016-04-28 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Khartoum, according to one theory, takes its name from the Beja word hartooma, meaning meeting place . Geographically, culturally and historically, the Sudanese capital is certainly that: a meeting place of the Blue and White Niles, a confluence of Arabic and African histories, and a destination point for countless refugees displaced by Sudan s long, troubled history of forced migration. In the pages of this book the first major anthology of Sudanese stories to be translated into English the city also stands as a meeting place for ideas: where the promise and glamour of the big city meets its tough social realities; where traces of a colonial past are still visible in day-to-day life; where the dreams of a young boy, playing in his fathers shop, act out a future that may one day be his. Diverse literary styles also come together here: the political satire of Ahmed al-Malik; the surrealist poetics of Bushra al-Fadil; the social realism of the first postcolonial authors; and the lyrical abstraction of the new Iksir generation. As with any great city, it is from these complex tensions that the best stories begin. "An exciting, long-awaited collection showcasing some of Sudan's finest writers. There is urgency behind the deceptively languorous voices and a piercing vitality to the shorter forms. These writers lay claim over the contradictions and fusions of the capital city - Nile and drought, urbanization and village ties, what is African and what is Arab." - Leila Aboulela


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