A short surrealist novel - The garden by the house by Abdelfateh Shahada

My review in French in El Watan newspaper :

The garden by the house (الجنة قريبة من البيت)

Abdelfetah Shehada

MIM editions, 2015

La littérature algérienne a toujours porté des voix d’auteurs qui aiment faire tomber les frontières entre rêve et réalité, entre conte et voix d’oracle. Cet espace transitoire est exploré dans un petit roman d’Abdelfetah Shehada, Le jardin près de la maison*, récemment publié aux éditions MIM.

Dans cette fiction, la dimension que Shehada dessine en effaçant peu à peu la séparation entre un réel palpable et l’hallucination se situe au sein d’un espace antédiluvien et familier : les jardins qui nous entourent. L’histoire s’ouvre dans un jardin public, celui dans lequel Hussein se promène depuis l’enfance, et avec lequel il garde un lien tout particulier. Il y rencontre un vieil homme errant, qui lui demande de le mener vers «le chemin». L’ancien cherche un chemin singulier, «celui de la mémoire». Hussein, intrigué par cette demande, continue tout de même sa route pour préparer sa journée.

...continue reading here...

Comments

Moufdi Zakaria - The Algerian Ilyad

I am over the moon to have found a PDF version of the original Algerian Ilyad by the great Algerian war poet Moufdi Zakaria. As it is the original version, it is in Arabic HERE (thanks to archive.org, a fantastic e-resource for old books, you should check it out). You can access the book in other formats too HERE . The Algerian Iliad - إلياذة الجزائـر - l' Iliade algé rienne is a 1,000 line poem retracing Algeria's history in great historical details. Throughout, Cheikh Zakaria recounts all the names that have shapped the Algeria's history. He goes through all the regions' history and their greatest most emblematic figures. This poem is so valuable and beautiful. It should be on the curriculum of any Arabic and history cursus in Algeria. Perhaps it is and/or you know this poem? Who is Cheikh Moufdi Zakaria? Well, on 5th of July, three days from now, Algeria will celebrate 50 years of independence. A tremendous poem wa...

"Kan darbe yaadatani, isa gara fuula dura itti yaaddu" (Oromo proverb)

"By remembering the past, the future is remembered". These notes are taken from Mengesha Rikitu's research on "Oromo Folk Tales for a new generation" by (see also his "Oromo Proverbs" and "Oromo Grammar"). Some proverbs are folk tales are worth the detour: 1) Oromo Proverb – Harreen yeroo alaaktu malee, yeroo dhuudhuuftu hin'beektu "The Donkey doesn't know that it is farting again and again when it is braying." (ie some people concentrating on their own verbosity are unaware of what is going on behind them) You can tell that dhuudhuuftu is the farting can't you, am betting on the sound that word makes. Oromifa is one of the five most widely spoken (Afroasiatic) languages in Africa. Its importance lies in the numbers of its speakers and in its geographical extent. The 'official' numbers point to 30 million Oromo speakers (but there has not been to this day a complete or reliable census). The majority...

List: Moroccan Literature in English (and) Translation

Moroccan Literature in English (and) Translation Many readers and bookshops organise their book piles, shelves and readings by country, loosely defined as the author’s country of origin, or of where the story takes place. It’s an approach to fiction I always found odd and enjoyable. There is a special kind of enjoyment to be had by sticking to the fiction of a place and concentrating on it for a while. The pleasure I derive from this may simply be due to my myopia, and the habit it brings of frowning at a single point until a clear picture emerges, but as others engage in the same, and comforted by a crowd, it’s a habit I pursue and which is now taking me to Morocco. This journey, I make accompanied by a list of Moroccan literature in English, that is, translated fiction or literature written originally in English. It is shared below for the curious and fellow addicts. I could say that my tendency to focus on a country is how the construction of the list began, but that w...

Machaho Tellem Chaho

Search This Blog