16 books (not widely available in UAE bookstores, according to The Nation) were chosen from 121 eligible entries.
Of these, only two of the authors (ibrahims Al-Koni and Nasrallah) have had book-length works translated into English. Several others - Ali Bader, Inaam Kachachi, Rabih Jaber, Habib Selmi - have had stories, excerpts and poems translated into English in Banipal magazine (back issues available). Bookbrunch (who also helpfully lists the Arabic publishers of all the titles) notes that
the 2008 winner, Sunset Oasis by Bahaa Taher, is being translated into English (with funding by Sigrid Rausing) by Humphrey Davies, and will be published by Sceptre in summer 2009.
The Bottle and the Genie, Mohammad Abu Maatouk
The Tobacco Guard, Ali Badr (review here)
Hunger, Mohammad Al Bsati
The Unfaithful Translator, Fawaz Haddad
The Man From Andalucia, Salem Hameesh
Prayer For The Family, Renée Hayek
Confessions, Rabih Jaber
Platoon Of Ruin, Abdel Kareem Jouaitly
The American Granddaughter, Inaam Kachachi
The Tumour, Ibrahim Al Koni
Black Taste, Black Odour, Ali Al Muqri
Time Of White Horses, Ibrahim Nasrallah
The Scents Of Marie-Claire, Al Habib Salmi
Intensive Care, Izzedin Shukri
Ma’ Al Sama’, Yehya Yekhlef
Beelzebub, Yussef Zeydan
The winner will be announced at the Abu Dhabi Book Fair on March 6, 2009.
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Ali Bader is an Iraqi novelist, poet, critic and script writer.
Bader was born in Baghdad, where he studied French Literature. He is working as editor in chief for Al-Mada literary magazine . In 2001 he published his novel "Papa Sartre" in which he attacked the 60s generation that dominated the cultural sphere in the Arab region. The novel won him the state award for literature in Baghdad in 2001, and the Tunisian Abu Al-Qassem Al-Shabi award.[citation needed]
In 2002, his novel "The Family's Winter" appeared that dealt with the decay of the Iraqi aristocracy in the 1950s, and three years later he published his novel "The Naked feast" on the emergence of the Iraqi intelligentsia at the beginning of the 20th century. This one was followed by another novel titled "The Road to Mutran Hill" that highlights the problems plaguing the Iraqi society and its division, prophesying the disintegration of the system. Bader's novel "Tumult, Women and a Sunken Writer" is his most popular piece that depicts the marginalized generation of Iraqi poets and novelists in the 90s and their lives under the dictatorship and the international sanctions. One of the essays he published is called "Mid-night Maps", that revolves around a journey to Iran, Turkey and Algeria and for which he was given the Ibn Battuta prize for contemporary journeys. His last novel called Jerusalem lantern, about the life and thoughts of Edward Said.
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