Book Size: 5.25" x 8"
Pages: 192
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781566564151
Imprint: Interlink Books
Edition: 2
Translator: Salma Khadra Jayyusi & Trevor LeGassick
Release date: 2001
Categories: Books on Palestine, LiteratureThe Secret Life of Saeed
The Pessoptimist
By Emile Habiby
$ 15“In Arabic Habiby had no precursors, and has had no successors- acknowledging his debt to Voltaire and Swift, he has proved inimitable.” — Middle East Magazine.
About this book
This contemporary classic, the story of a Palestinian who becomes a citizen of Israel, combines fact and fantasy, tragedy and comedy.
Saeed is the comic hero, the luckless fool, whose tale tells of aggression and resistance, terror and heroism, reason and loyalty that typify the hardships and struggles of Arabs in Israel. An informer for the Zionist state, his stupidity, candor, and cowardice make him more of a victim than a villain; but in a series of tragicomic episodes, he is gradually transformed from a disaster-haunted, gullible collaborator into a Palestinian- no hero still, but a simple man intent on survival and, perhaps, happiness.
The author's own anger and sorrow at Palestine's tragedy and his acquaintance with the absurdities of Israeli politics (he was once a member of Israel's parliament himself) are here transmuted into satire both biting and funny. Translated by Anton Shammas into Hebrew, The Secret Life of Saeed won Israel's foremost Prize for Literature; a stage version played to great acclaim for a decade.
Brand: Emile HabibyAbout the authors
Emile Habiby was one of the most celebrated Palestinian writers. He has published several highly acclaimed novels and plays and his work has been translated into German, French, and Hebrew. Habiby died in 1996.
Salma Khadra Jayyusi is one of the Arab world's most distinguished literary personalities and is widely known for her poetry and literary criticism.
Trevor LeGassick, scholar and professor of Arabic liteature at the University of Michigan, has translated many novels and edited an anthology of modern Arabic prose.
Reviews
“In Arabic Habiby had no precursors, and has had no successors- acknowledging his debt to Voltaire and Swift, he has proved inimitable.” — Middle East Magazine.
About the Author
Salma Khadra Jayyusi is one of the Arab world’s most distinguished literary personalities and is widely known for her poetry and literary criticism.
Trevor LeGassick, scholar and professor of Arabic liteature at the University of Michigan, has translated many novels and edited an anthology of modern Arabic prose.
