Novel
The Book of Khalid
Ameen Rihani · 1911
Synopsis
Two young Lebanese men emigrate to New York, where one of them, Khalid, looks for his way between Western materialism and Eastern spirituality. A novel of ideas about exile and identity. The book presents itself as an Arabic manuscript found in Cairo, and three voices are interwoven in it: that of the hero, that of his friend, and that of anonymous editors.
Context
The book was written in English at Freike, in the Lebanese mountains, and completed on 12 January 1910, a date its last page records in both calendars, Christian and Hijri. It appeared in New York in October 1911, with a title page, chapter headings and tailpieces drawn by Gibran, who had then published nothing in English. The frame is an Arabic manuscript supposedly found in a library in Cairo, and three texts are interwoven in it: the life of the hero by his friend, his diary, and the commentary of anonymous American editors.
Who it is for
A novel in English, the first published in that language by an Arab author. His travel writings on Arabia are consulted more today than his fiction.
Prizes and reception
The first title of its kind, and read less today than the same author's travel narratives, which remain sources on Arabia in the twenties.