Novel
The Stone of Laughter
حجر الضحك
Hoda Barakat · 1990
Synopsis
In war-torn Beirut, Khalil, a young man struggling against what is considered in his surroundings a feminine nature, looks for his place among the boys of his age without managing to form a political opinion. He secretly loves his friend Naji, who is thinking of joining his sisters in Saudi Arabia, and his cousin Youssef, whose enlistment in a militia upsets him deeply. Around him, the city empties under the bombardments and street fighting.
Context
The book was published in London in 1990 by Riad El-Rayyes; it is her first novel, and it received the al-Naqid prize, which honours first novels. Its hero, androgynous, caught between masculinity and femininity, refuses to join either side and withdraws into domestic life; his only ties with the outside world are through journalist friends. An English version was published in the United States by Interlink in 1995, and Nadine Acoury translated it into French for Actes Sud in 1996.
Who it is for
A war novel without battle scenes, set entirely in the inner life of its hero; in French since 1996.
Prizes and reception
The book that revealed its author, later winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Prize and the “Arabic Booker”.
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