Fifteen years between the Egyptian novelist Baha Tahar’s “Sunset Oasis” who won the International Prize for Novel in 2008 and the same prize-winning Libyan young novelist Mohammed al-Nass’ “Bread on the Table of Uncle Milad”. This year is the 2022 edition.
In Baha Tahar’s first novel, the author traces back stories from the late nineteenth century to the present, and then takes us back to the present.
While Muhammad al-Nass’ novel revolves around a closed village community, its events take place in Libya, where its hero Milad al-Osta seeks the definition of the best manhood according to his community’s understanding, but he fails to be that man, and lo and behold he enters the house with his wife. He spends his days and plays the household roles imposed on women by society, so he stubbornly opposes this understanding, while at the same time the wife works to provide for the home, thus adapting the roles they have settled into, and in a novel that describes it as creative, its young writer excels at writing it. .
Thus, the wheel of time spins, and we find ourselves among the approximately 15 impressive fantasies of Arab writers who raised various topics, including the Egyptian Yusuf Zaidan “Asazel”, the Saudi apothecary “Therm Sharr”. Morocco’s Mohammed al-Ash’ari “Will and the Butterfly”, and Saudi Arabia’s King Alem “Lock of the Pigeon”, Lebanese Rabbi Jaber “Truss of Baghdad,” Kuwait South Al-Sanusi “The Bamboo Stalk”. “Then Ahmad Sadawi of Iraq” to “The Italian” by Frankenstein in Baghdad, “The Italian” by Tunisian Shukri al-Mbkout, then by the Palestinian Rabbi al-Madun, “The Fate of the Holocaust Concert and the Nakba”, and “The Short Death of Saudi Mohammed Hassan Alon” The Second Dog War “, Lebanese Hota Paragath” The Night Post “, then Algerian Abdel Wahab Isavi’s” The Spartan Diwan “, Jordanian Jalal Barzas and his novel” Tafir Al-Warrak “.
Thus, the novel continues to be a wild horse in an Arab land, awakened by problems and difficulties from the sea to the Gulf, to arouse the worries and dreams of its writers.
The International Prize for Arab Fiction, during this period, was able to open wide spaces for the Arab reader because it gave him more opportunity to read different Arabic contexts, and some novels opened up another space for different levels of Arab concern. And effects for individuals.
On the other hand, the novel as a literary genre was imposed on the Arab reader who faced various options that occupied his cultural and literary interest.The novel succeeded in inspiring the Arab critical front, which was keen on presenting the readings. The young experiences, the peculiarities of its book, recorded their obsessions and dreams.
This remarkable rise of the Arabic novel, in the light of the development of the Arab current, opened a window to read it and to distort its content and art structures, to compete with – at least – two familiar literary genres, fiction and poetry.
This media light, which came with the Arabic novel, is heavily indebted to the “Arab Booker” who promises to reward the creators and publish their works in other languages ​​outside the Arab world. In particular the author can not even publish a book of his works.
The “Arab Booker” raises important questions about the artistic and aesthetic impact of these works on the conscience of Arab intellectuals.
If the Arabic novel, which began in the context presented by previous and well-established names, is strong and inspiring, and the Arabic characters have delivered innovative successes that have never been done before in epic dimensions and magical reality, there is no doubt that new experiences in the light of the support of the “Arab Booker” would like to integrate another experience that gives a hint. Manic, and wants to make reality more beautiful, exciting and believable.