Despite her author's refusal to run for the prize, Huda Barakat's novel "The Night of the Night" won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (Poker) 2019 at its 12th edition. The Lebanese creator received a cash prize of $ 50,000 at a ceremony held in Abu Dhabi yesterday evening, In addition to translating her novel into English. The rights to translate the novel have already been sold to English, and the English version of the novel will be published in London in the year 2020.
The head of the arbitration committee, Sharafeddine Magdolin, explained that the novel "The Night Post" expresses an experience in the writing of the novel by its intensification, linguistic economy, narrative structure and its ability to portray the human depth. Its great challenge is that it used popular means of fiction and succeeded in creating within it. Convince the reader.
For his part, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, Yasser Suleiman, said that "the novel deals with a codified set of messages, the main subject of the language economy is great, makes each of its words brick court plays its role in building spaces of converging meanings - at the same time . The reader follows the narratives of narratives in the novel with overlapping sensations that prevent flattening, despite their focus on the subject of asylum and displacement that has long occupied the literary people in our fragile world. The novel explores its themes in this space with deliberation and accountability.
He considered that the crowning of the "Post of the Night" in the International Prize for Arabic Fiction was recognition of its excellence and appreciation of Hoda Barakat, whom we celebrate as a creative Arab novelist.
The "mail of the night" includes the stories of the owners of letters, who wrote and lost like them. But they call for other messages, intersecting with them like the destinies of these strangers, immigrants, displaced people, or displaced exiles, orphans of their countries broken by the days.
The ceremony was honored by the five shortlisted candidates: Enaam Kajahi, Shahla Al Ajili, Adel Esmat, Kafi Al Zu'bi and Mohammad Maazouz. The candidates received a prize worth $ 10,000.