Book Size: 8" x 5.25"
Pages: 256
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781623719074
Imprint: Interlink Books
Translator: Paula Haydar
Release date: Summer 2022
Category: LiteratureThe King of India
A Novel
$ 17Not yet published
About this book
The story of a Lebanese murder case set against the backdrop of sectarian animosity
Shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction
In mysterious circumstances, the body of Zakaria Mubarak is found at the boundary of his village, Tel Safra in Lebanon. He had just returned from a long exile in Europe, the USA, and Africa, carrying with him a painting by Marc Chagall, the “Blue Violinist,” a gift from his girlfriend in Paris. Suspicion falls on the cousins who may have killed him to get a treasure supposedly buried underneath the house built by their grandmother when she came back from America.
This absorbing novel tells the story of Zakaria’s murder, intersected with fables of gold, sibling strife, the love of French women, the fake promise of revolution, and sectarian enmities which have been flaring up from time to time in Lebanon for the last 150 years.
About the authors
Jabbour Douaihy is a celebrated Lebanese novelist born in the town of Zgharta, northern Lebanon, in 1949. He holds a PhD degree in comparative literature from the Sorbonne and works as a professor of French literature at the Lebanese University. He has published seven works of fiction, including June Rain, which was shortlisted for the inaugural International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2008 and The Vagrant, shortlisted for IPAF in 2012. The American Quarter reached the IPAF long list in 2015. His latest novel, Printed in Beirut, will be published by Interlink in 2018.
Paula Haydar teaches at the University of Arkansas and has translated novels by Elias Khoury, Rachid al-Daif, Jabbour Douaihy, Sahar Khalifeh and others.
Reviews
“Douaihy illuminates Lebanon’s tumultuous recent history in brief … readers will be both enlightened and charmed.” —Publishers Weekly on Printed in Beirut
Douaihy’s masterpiece … A powerful portrait of identity and division in Lebanon.” —The New Arab on June Rain
“This novel is Douaihy’s most accomplished, subtle, and captivating.” —Livres Hebdo on The American Quarter
About the Author
Paula Haydar teaches at the University of Arkansas and has translated novels by Elias Khoury, Rachid al-Daif, Jabbour Douaihy, Sahar Khalifeh and others.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.