Lisa Dempster › First book @ Sharjah Book Fair

Friday October 29, 2010 | Travel, Writing & Publishing

I bought my first book of the Book Fair!

I have barely dipped my toe into the books-in-English section of the Fair, which is enormous, but I have done a quick skim through with a desire to find a book from the region. At the Bloomsbury stand I chatted to the publisher, who runs the new Doha outfit of the house. He directed me to Nothing to Lose But Your Life by Suad Amiry:

A tomboy at heart, driven by adventure and a desire to understand what her less privileged compatriots go through, architect and university professor Suad Amiry disguises herself as a man and crosses the Israeli border illegally to seek work in the Israeli town of Petah Tikva. The 18-hour journey that she braves with Murad and his brother Mohammed starts with a bumpy late night ride in a bus crammed with other illegal workers – all men – whose endless stories are both horrifying and amusing. “Nothing to Lose But Your Life” is a vivid account of a grueling journey but also a lamentation for lost land and for simpler, more peaceful times.

Fittingly, it is the first title that Bloomsbury Qatar has released – the first of hopefully many titles that were written in the Middle East and translated into English.

There has been a fair bit of talk about translation during the Book Fair so far. It’s obvious to me that people who live in this region read (and consume media generally) from a wide range of sources, either in multiple languages or through translations. That’s something that sadly I think English-speaking countries are slack at. To me it feels like the bulk of international books available in Australia were written in English (usually British or American) and seeing translations is much rarer. For shame! I think it’s especially sad that Aussies don’t read more from the Asia-Pacific region…

I’m really looking forward to discovering a wealth of Arabic literature while I’m here in Sharjah.

Here is a great article from Publishing Perspectives about the kinds of books available in English at Sharjah.

Tonight’s Event at Sharjah International Book Fair: Naif Al Mutawa and Qais Sidki! | Read Kutub KIDS

Posted on October 29, 2010 by mlynxqualey

Tonight, I’m exceptionally excited to be going to the “Coming Book Panel Discussion” at the Sharjah International Book Fair, which will feature—among others—Dr. Naif Al Mutawa (creator of The 99, الـ ٩٩) and award-winning author Qais Sidki (author of The Gold Ring, سوار الذهب).

Hope to be able to share pearls of wisdom about graphic novels for children tomorrow.

More from Publishers Weekly: Graphic Novels, Panel Discussions and Deals at the Sharjah Book Fair

British vs. American Dialect in Translating ‘The American Granddaughter’ � Arabic Literature (in English)

Inaam Kachachi’s The American Granddaughter, shortlisted for the 2009 “Arabic Booker” and just published in English by Bloomsbury Qatar, is one of the few grown-up books I have thus far acquired at the Sharjah International Book Fair.*

I began reading Kachachi’s 2008 novel last night. And once I’d begun, it was difficult to stop. Of course, there is the essential beauty of the novel—Kachachi’s imagery, the overlapping structures, her fresh look at a young Iraqi-American woman during the Gulf War—but there is also the lovely job Nariman Youssef does with Kachachi’s often-lush sentences.

About her Mosul relatives, the protagonist says:

When they spoke it was as if the kitchen cupboards had collapsed and a cacophony of pots and pans were spilling out. Words burst out of my relatives’ mouths in a burst of qafs and gheins, with the elongated alef at the end making everything sound like the finale of a musical mawwal.

Even if a reader doesn’t know an alef from a yeh (how do you transliterate a ي?), or a mawwal from a polka, the passage still carries the necessary richness.

One thing is bothering me. The narrator’s diction is quite high—a working-class girl from Detroit says, “I pulled into the spacious parking lot in front of Wal-Mart….” Fine. Something has elevated this character, putting her outside of ordinary American speech. I haven’t read so far that I can see the full effects, but I can appreciate the decision.

But, then, certain sentences tugged at me:

It wasn’t the kind of thing you could chat about on your mobile.

And most particularly:

I opened mine and found a sandwich, a bag of crisps, a Coke and a cookie.

This is undoubtedly the British edition of The American Granddaughter; perhaps it will be changed for American audiences. But while my brain accepts that this character might have an elevated, epic diction to reflect her elevated, epic experiences, the poor brain falters in the face of an American saying “crisps” unless he or she is doing a Monty Python impression.

*I have been entranced by the Arabic children’s lit options; the selection here is vast and sparkly. And, as I’ve asserted over at Read Kutub Kids, there is no such thing as a book that’s only good for children. Or, well, it was Auden who asserted it, but I had the good sense to repeat it.

New Blog: ‘Graphic Novels in the Middle East’ � Arabic Literature (in English)

Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies Outreach Center has just started up a new blog for its 2010 – 2011 program on comics and graphic novels.

The information is particularly targeted to K-12 educators and libraries—the center will be running anonline book group for the K-12 educator set—although clearly with an emphasis on older students. (And no, you are not too grown-up for books on this list, which includes Joe Sacco’s Palestine.)

The website has just started up, but they already have a strong suggested reading list. Perhaps you want to pick up some suggestions, or—even better—have some drop some off.

Thanks much to @drawmedy for alerting me to the launch.

Apologies: I am having fantastical computer problems here at the Sharjah International Book Fair, so this is all I can manage. (If the book fair’s computer services can fix my laptop, they will, much like Dar el Shorouk and Walid Taher, deserve a 1 million AED prize.)