Announcing the winner next Sunday

“Arab Poker 2022” .. Do you go to the Emirati novel

• Businesses shortlisted.

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• Reem Al Kamali draws worlds from the sixties in her novel.

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A few days later, the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (Booker) will reach the conclusion of its 15th session to announce the winner of the grand prize next Sunday in Abu Dhabi, in the presence of the writers with novels nominated for the short list, which are “The Cairo Make-Up” by Tariq Imam, and “Dilshad - The Biography of Hunger and Satisfaction” by Bushra. Khalfan, “Rose Diaries” by Emirati Reem Al Kamali, “The White Line of the Night” by Khaled Nasrallah, “Bread on the Table of Uncle Milad” by Muhammad Al-Naas, and “Prisoner of the Portuguese” by Mohsen Al-Wakeili, as each of the six shortlisted candidates will receive $10,000, and the prize winner will receive an additional $50,000.

The award in its current session is witnessing the arrival of the Emirati novel for the first time to the short list through the novel “The Rose Diaries” by Reem Al Kamali, after it had previously reached the long list for the first time in 2017 through the novel “One Room Is Not Enough” by the writer Sultan Al-Amimi, which raises a question If the award, which was launched from Abu Dhabi in 2008, will finally smile at the Emirati novel.

"Rose's Diaries" delves into Dubai society in the sixties of the last century in the Shindagha region in search of women's creativity at that period, through the girl Rosa who is deprived of a scholarship to Damascus to study Arabic literature with her classmates who finished high school due to the death of her mother and her uncle's refusal to travel And because she is a professional reader and has the queen of writing, she pours her anger into her secret diaries, and turns everything around her from historical and social events and ancient traditions into stories, ideas, philosophy and questions, and throws her notebooks after they are full in the waters of the creek near the house, to get rid of them before anyone sees them.

Multiple issues

The search in the memory of cities was not limited to “Rose’s Diaries”, as it was one of the issues addressed by the shortlisted novels this year, along with other issues, including identity and freedom of expression, to give these novels a voice for the marginalized, oppressed and forgotten in the body of history, as explained by the head of the jury committee for the session. The current novelist, Shukri Al-Mabkhout, during the announcement of the novels nominated for the list.

The Omani writer Bushra Khalfan also raised the issue of the memory of cities in search of the identity of the place and people in her novel “Dilshad”, which is divided into three chapters. Each chapter bears the title of one of the lanes of Muscat, in which the main events of the novel take place, in the first half of the 20th century.

The main character "Dilshad", the Muscatian boy, of unknown parentage, who grows up in one of the "Balush" neighborhoods, is influenced by their culture and the Arabs surrounding them. Through the character of "Dilshad" and "Maryam", the events of the novel revolve around hunger, sadness, adventure, and love, In it, tales are reproduced in multiple voices and in different languages, addressing the multiculturalism of Muscat.

Inspiration

As for the Egyptian writer, Tariq Imam, the January 25, 2011 revolution was the source of inspiration for his novel “Mackett Cairo”, as the moment inspired him to start a novel about the artist’s ambivalent relationship with the city and power, not only political, but also artistic, and to question again about the role of the artist and art, and even made Art itself is a question for art.

The novel takes place in Cairo in the year 2045, as the “Gallery of Cairo Shoal”, the independent artistic institution for the arts of the fringe, announces a grant to build a miniature maquette for the city a quarter of a century ago, “Cairo 2020”, which is now “the former capital of Egypt.”

Based on this event, the novel chronicles Cairo in four times: 2045, 2020, 2011, and an unspecified time in the distant future.

Each time, a figure working in independent art rises, and the different times meet and intersect in honor of one place, the Gallery.

Whereas, Kuwaiti writer Khaled Al-Nasrallah was inspired by the novel “The White Line of the Night” from a friend who works in the book censorship agency and has a talent for creative writing at the same time.

The protagonist of the novel experiences several conflicts in the work environment. He suffers when he prevents a book, and is disturbed by his having to refuse some of the works that appeal to him, so he falls into a taboo.

The events of the novel take place in a dystopian political atmosphere, as power overlaps in a conflict with the people, and the main character plays an important role in the events that escalate in intensity as the reader penetrates its pages, until his obsession and desire lead him to a sudden end.

For his part, the Libyan writer Muhammad Al-Naas derived the subject of his novel “Bread at the Table of Uncle Milad” from a popular Libyan proverb that says “A family and its uncle is Milad”, so he sought to weave the threads of Uncle Milad and his family.

• "Rose Diaries" delves into Dubai society in the sixties of the last century in the Shindagha region in search of women's creativity in that period.

• The Emirati creator, Reem Al Kamali, competes for the award with her novel, which was shortlisted.

life vs stories

The Moroccan city of Essaouira, which was one of the impregnable fortresses of the Portuguese on the Atlantic coast centuries ago, is the focus of the Moroccan writer Mohsen Al-Wukili’s novel “Prisoner of the Portuguese”, after he visited it and admired its walls that still preserve the glory of the Portuguese when they were masters of the world, and watched in one of its squares overlooking the sea A storyteller plays the flute.

Sitting next to him was his slender monkey, and he saw in the image of the past Bedouin present in front of me to become the hero of his novel, which deals with the tale of a simple man who goes out to the villages in search of a livelihood to find himself captive in one of the Portuguese fortresses on the African coast, leaving behind his wife and three children in Fez.

The prisoner bargained with his jailer to tell tales, after threatening him with execution if he did not succeed in formulating the story to his liking.

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