Rabih Alameddine ist ein Autor, dessen Werk die Komplexität von Identität und Vertreibung durch eine einzigartige Mischung aus Humor und tiefgründiger Introspektion erforscht. Seine Erzählungen tauchen in die Schnittpunkte von Kultur, Kunst und persönlicher Geschichte ein und bieten den Lesern einen reichen Teppich an Erfahrungen.
Aaliya ist 72 Jahre alt und lebt allein in einer Wohnung in Beirut. Allein, seit sie mit Anfang zwanzig kinderlos von ihrem Mann geschieden wurde. Seitdem umgibt sie sich mit Büchern. Sie arbeitet als Buchhändlerin und übersetzt jedes Jahr eines ihrer Lieblingswerke ins Arabische. Wieder neigt sich das Jahr dem Ende zu und zum ersten Mal ist Aaliya unsicher, welches Buch sie als nächstes übersetzen soll. Sie beginnt ihr Alter zu spüren. Erinnerungen durchziehen ihre Gedanken. An ihre Familie. An das Leben in Beirut während des Bürgerkriegs. An Hannah, ihre einzige Freundin. „Großartig." (Rachel Kushner) Gewinner 2015 California Book Award.
The novel explores Sarah's journey of self-discovery amidst the complexities of her hybrid family and the backdrop of wartime Beirut. As she navigates her life in self-imposed exile in the United States, she sheds layers of pretension, revealing her authentic self. Supported by a close friend and her son, Sarah embraces both her dignity and the fragmented nature of her existence. The narrative is imbued with humor and heartache, presenting a poignant and memorable exploration of humanity. A reading group guide is also included.
WINNER OF THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FOR FICTION 2022'A beautiful, well paced, enraging, funny and heartbreaking book' the Guardian 'Spectacular . . . Alameddine's irreverent prose evokes the old master storytellers from my own Middle Eastern home . . . deeply poignant' New York TimesMina Simpson, a Lebanese doctor, arrives at the infamous Moria refugee camp on Lesbos, Greece, after being urgently summoned for help by her friend who runs an NGO there. Alienated from her family except for her beloved brother, Mina has avoided being so close to her homeland for decades. But with a week off work and apart from her wife of thirty years, Mina hopes to accomplish something meaningful, among the abundance of Western volunteers who pose for selfies with beached dinghies and the camp's children. Soon, a boat crosses bringing Sumaiya, a fiercely resolute Syrian matriarch with terminal liver cancer. Determined to protect her children and husband at all costs, Sumaiya refuses to alert her family to her diagnosis. Bonded together by Sumaiya's secret, a deep connection sparks between the two women, and as Mina prepares a course of treatment with the limited resources on hand, she confronts the circumstances of the migrants' displacement, as well as her own constraints in helping them.Not since the inimitable Aaliya of An Unnecessary Woman has Rabih Alameddine conjured such a winsome heroine to lead us to one of the most wrenching conflicts of our time. Cunningly weaving in stories of other refugees into Mina's singular own, The Wrong End of the Telescope is a bedazzling tapestry of both tragic and amusing portraits of indomitable spirits facing this humanitarian crisis.'Alameddine hits a distinctly contemporary note with this new book about refugees . . . it feels totally authentic' Sunday Times
'The Hakawati' - or, 'The Storyteller' - is a sweeping, wildly imaginative feast of a novel, bursting with the myths of the Middle East. At its emotional core is the reunion of a long-standing Beiruti family, whose patriarch is dying and visited on his deathbed by his children and by memories of his ancestors. Rabih Alameddine tells their stories - of crusades and battles; chicanery, betrayal and sex; family rivalry, family disunity and family life - and spins them together with the historical stories of the region, but with a twist. Born in Beirut, living in San Francisco, and writing in English, Alameddine not only spans both Western and Middle-Eastern culture, but does so as one of the most mischievous and inventive writers at work.
Following the critical and commercial success of An Unnecessary Woman,
Alameddine delivers a spectacular portrait of a man and an era of profound
political and social upheaval.
"Hakawati. Il cantore di storie" di Rabih Alameddine è un caso letterario: sia perché l'autore, giordano, di origine libanese apre una finestra su un mondo problematico; sia perché, mantenendo un alto livello di qualità letteraria, Alameddine, al suo terzo romanzo, riesce a mettere a confronto l'arte dello storytelling di tradizione araba con la cultura americana che il protagonista e l'autore hanno assorbito per molti anni. Nel romanzo, il protagonista, Osama al-Kharrat, lascia nel 2003 gli Stati Uniti, dove vive da tempo, per recarsi al capezzale del padre a Beirut. E se scopre la sua città natale irrimediabilmente cambiata, trova invece intatti gli affetti famigliari e il modo di comunicarli attraverso le storie. Cantastorie di professione era infatti il nonno di Osama, e le avventure del suo arrivo in Libano dalla Turchia si mescolano a quelle dei principi delle Crociate come pure ai pettegolezzi della vita di tutti i giorni.
