Welcome to a World of Literature

Everything you need to know about the world's great writers and emerging voices is being collected and shared on the English PEN Online World Atlas. Head over to the Atlas to create (or edit) a profile for your favourite author or book, leave a comment or contact another user, and discover your next great read. We believe that great writing has the power to change your life and change the world, one book at a time.

The Atlas is proud to be partnering with the Hay Festival's Beirut39 contest, celebrating Beirut's year as UNESCO World Book Capital, to find the hottest authors under 40 of Arabic origin. Nominations are open until August 24th, 2009.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Storytellers & their titles

Novelist/translator/blogger Randa Jarrar has a generous and perspicacious review of The Hakawati for this month's issue of Words Without Borders, in the spirit of this generous and lovely novel by US-based Lebanese writer Rabih Alameddine. And it makes a point that I haven't seen elsewhere and that has set me thinking:

I was struck initially by the book’s title, the Arabic word for “storyteller.” It seems to be the first time a novel has come out from a major press [in the US] with an Arabic title


True? False? Definitely worth noting. Any thoughts on novels with Arabic titles from major English-language presses? The one that springs to my mind is Minaret (derived from manara, lighthouse) by Leila Aboulela, published in the UK by Bloomsbury...

No comments:

Add to Technorati Favorites MetaxuCafe