Gathered from India, Persia and across the great Arab empire, these mesmerising stories tell of the real and the supernatural, love and marriage, power and punishment, wealth and poverty, and the endless trials and uncertainties of fate. Retold by Hanan al-Shaykh, One Thousand and One Nights are revealed in an intoxicating new voice.
‘Magical … bursting with jinnis and mischief’ Donna Tartt, The Times
‘A treat and a trap for story lovers … al-Shaykh has rendered nineteen little masterpieces into a wondrously warm, ribald and hilarious concoction, reminding us of how bang up to date these stories can be’ Hanif Kureishi, Guardian
‘A treasure box of stories … [they] link and loop and ensnare their readers’ Independent
Click here to order
Women of Sand and Myrrh
In an unnamed Middle Eastern city, four women from different social and cultural backgrounds tell their story. There is Suha, an educated Lebanese woman brought to the desert by her husband; Tamr, who must fight against male rule to educate herself; Suzanne, captivated by the men and the mystery of the Arabian desert; and Nur, in fierce pursuit of lovers (male and female) and foreign adventures – but her husband has her passport. All four women struggle in a society where women cannot drive a car, walk in the streets unveiled, or travel without male permission. It is a society where sex, due to its constraints, becomes an obsession. These women are treated to every luxury except that which they truly desire – freedom.
‘A complex and demanding story of women in the Gulf – oppresed, manipulated, sexually tormented and confused … breathtakingly frank’ Edward Said
‘One of the finest Arab novelists of her generation’ Financial Times
‘Al-Shaykh goes where few Arab writers have gone before: not just into a world of women but into their sexuality’ Economist
Click here to order
The Locust and the Bird
Kamila is nine years old when she is taken from the poverty of her childhood village in southern Lebanon to Beirut. She has never learned to read or write though she longs to go to school. Stories, poetry and film are her passion – and a beautiful boy called Muhammad. They fall in love before Kamila is forced into an arranged marriage, despite her tears and screams. She is only fourteen years old. On her wedding night her first daughter is conceived; four years later, Hanan is born. Kamila and Muhammad continue to see each other in secret, risking their lives. It is eight years before Kamila can bring herself to divorce her husband, as to do so means leaving her daughters behind. Beautifully evoking the dusty streets of Beirut and life in Lebanon, this is a heartbreaking memoir of an extraordinary woman.
‘It is an extraordinarily brave act for a writer to undertake to inhabit, fully and sympathetically, the life her mother lived before she was born, particularly when her mother was no jewel of wifely virtue’ J.M. Coetzee
‘This tender memoir … courageously addresses both the themes of geographical separation and the jagged motifs of mother-daughter conflict’ Independent
‘A powerful book on the dangers of romantic love in mid-twentieth century Arab society’ Guardian
‘This is a book that wears its heart firmly on its sleeve, offering an insight into an unfamiliar culture and a cinematic love story’ The Times
Click here to order
https://www.bloomsbury.com/author/hanan-al-shaykh-10398/
Adapted from two separate books first published in 2003 and 2015 in Beirut, Imra’atan ala shati’ al-bahr (Two Women by the Sea) and Adhara Londonistan (The Virgins of Londonistan) by Dar-al-Adab, Lebanon.
First published in Great Britain 2018
This electronic edition published in 2018 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Copyright © Hanan Al-Shaykh, 2003, 2015 and 2018
English language translation © Catherine Cobham, 2018
Hanan Al-Shaykh has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work
Here Extract from ‘Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera Sera)’, Words & Music by Jay Livingston & Ray Evans © Copyright 1955 St. Angelo Music, USA/Jay Livingston Music Incorporated. Wixen Music UK Ltd/Chester Music Limited trading as Campbell Connelly & Co. for UK, Eire and Australasia. All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured. Used by permission of Chester Music Limited trading as Campbell Connelly & Co.
The moral right of the author has been asserted
All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square
London
WC1B 3DP
www.bloomsbury.com
Bloomsbury is a trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Oxford, New York, New Delhi and Sydney
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 4088 9569 6
eISBN 978 1 4088 9570 2
To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters
The Occasional Virgin Page 21
