The novel “Crows Don’t Eat the Dead” was recently published by writer Doaa Al-Badi, published by Ishraqa Publishing and Distribution House (Al-Jazeera).

The novel “Crows That Don’t Eat the Dead” by Egyptian writer Doaa Gamal El Badi was recently published, and its chapters recount the biography of the Mansi family, which settled in the city of Suez, during the 19th century, and the fate of the grandson who was born during the defeat of June 1967.

The novel - across 219 pages - deals with the consequences of wars on people, whether they end in defeat or victory.

The hero of “Crows Don’t Eat the Dead” has convictions about wars and crows that affect his entire career, and successive disappointments force him to leave his city, to begin a new journey of suffering in several cities. As events escalate, the past is revealed to him one by one. This leaves him faced with a real reality and a fabricated one.

Doaa Al-Badi, an Egyptian journalist, won the Tayeb Salih International Award for Writing Creativity for the novel “Flower of Andalusia” in 2019, and won the Supreme Council of Culture Award for the play “Ashes” in 2023. She published a series of short stories entitled “They Are Rising in the Nightstand Drawer” in 2019. .

Al-Badi says, “There is a strong relationship between journalism and literature. They both talk about people and target people. There is also a difference between them. Journalistic writing is governed by the restrictions of what can be called “reporting,” where the language is dry and strives toward neutrality, but in literature, writing is free without restrictions.” .

She continues: “There are many writers who worked in journalism, such as Ghassan Kanafani, Ihsan Abdel Quddus, and Youssef Idris.”

Al-Badi considers that the journalistic story seeks information and covers all sides of the issue, while the fictional story presents only the feelings of its writer regarding the event, in addition to the difference in the nature of the narrative. She continues: “The journalist and the novelist are not suitable for history, as the former is driven by the policies of the journalistic institution in which he works, and the novelist is led by him.” "His feelings."

Regarding the setting of the novel and its chronological context, Al-Badi considers that the novel deals with the impact of war on people - whether that war ended in defeat or victory - “There is no Egyptian city that was affected by the wars that Egypt fought during the past century, as Suez was.”

Novelist Doaa Al Badi won the Tayeb Salih International Award for Writing Creativity for the novel “Flower of Andalusia” in 2019 (Al Jazeera)

The Egyptian novelist believes that navigating the crisis occurred through the hero himself, who told the family’s biography before continuing to tell his own biography.

A tale of two wars

Regarding her motivation for writing the novel, she says: “I am convinced that the Egyptians have not yet overcome the defeat of June 1967, despite the victory six years later in 1973, and despite the time dimension of the two wars. From that I started... All the heroes of the novel carry this defeat on their shoulders and move on with life. And with every event it becomes clear to them that they have not won.”

Among the texts of the novel, which seem like parts of a poetic poem, one of its characters says: “I rise, and the rest are sick on the ground, accustomed to the dust and chewing their bodies, and there in the distance is a shadow putting out matches and turning over the embers of the farce. Then here are the brave ones, captive like the remains of the murdered! I am manifesting.” They poured blood on my clothes and laughed. Who will give the upright sticks the ashes, and who will be given to the burnt offering?!”

The text continues: “Then their voices, wounded by defeat, rose:

- get down.


- you will die.


And I shouted at them:

-You are cowards and I am completely remorseful.


They feel sorry and hit their palms, and I also say:


- I will not come back.


For some mysterious reason, they are gathering around an invisible point, preparing to explode, while I wait for the crows to come to solve the matter.”

Source: Al Jazeera