Novel
ثمن التضحية
Not translated into English
Hamid Damanhuri · 1959
Synopsis
The Price of Sacrifice: in Mecca, in a united and comfortable merchant family, Ahmed Abd al-Rahman completes his last year at the institute that prepares scholarship holders sent abroad. He loves his cousin and binds himself to her by a marriage contract before leaving for Egypt to study medicine. In Cairo, he discovers a freer society, where women study, and falls in love with a classmate's sister, a beautiful and cultivated young Egyptian: he is now torn between her and the commitment made in Mecca.
Context
The novel first appeared as a serial in the newspaper Hira, in Jeddah, then in book form in Riyadh in 1959, and its first edition quickly sold out. Saudipedia counts it among the first Saudi novels to bring together the technical elements of the genre: an external narrator, a continuous chronology, attention to the characters and to the milieu of the Meccan merchants, at a time when education is expanding and Egypt is welcoming the kingdom's students. The Literary Club of Mecca reissued it in tribute to the author, whom Abdullah Omar Khayyat called the Naguib Mahfouz of the Hejaz.
Who it is for
A long realist novel of nearly four hundred pages; no French or English translation has been located, although critics say it has been translated into English, German and Russian.
Prizes and reception
Regarded by critics as the first complete Saudi novel, it was widely welcomed by them from its publication.
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