Book Size: 5.25" x 8"

Pages: 160

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9781566563833

Imprint: Interlink Books

Edition: 1

Translator: Paula Haydar

Release date: 2001

Categories: ,

This Side of Innocence

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$ 12.95

About this book

"Who tore down the picture?' That is the whole story, from A to Z. They wanted to know who tore down the picture."

So opens Rashid Al-Daif's This Side of Innocence, the story of one man's run-in with the secret police of his unnamed, war-torn country. In ironic contrast with Al-Daif's typically clear and frank literary style, this unreliable, "innocent" narrator relates much more than an A-to-Z tale. The novel's real story is about the deeply obscure events of a personal encounter with tyranny- the tyranny of the instability and chaos of a country at war with itself and consequently preyed upon by internal and external forces. In the end, we are left with the story of how one man (or country) can innocently invent his own executioner.

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About the authors

Born in Lebanon in 1945, Rachid al-Daif is the acclaimed author of eleven novels and three volumes of poetry. Of the novels, three have been translated into English: Dear Mr. Kawabata, This Side of Innocence, and Passage to Dusk. He lives in Beirut, Lebanon, where he teaches Arabic literature at the Lebanese University.

Paula Haydar is Assistant Professor of Arabic at the University of Arkansas. She holds a PhD degree in comparative literature and an M.F.A. degree in literary translation. She has translated numerous novels by contemporary Lebanese, Palestinian, and Jordanian authors. Her translation of Lebanese novelist Jabbour Douaihy’s June Rain was selected as the highly commended runner-up of the 2014 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation and also made the Daily Star’s list of Top Middle East Novels of 2014. Her translations of Lebanese authors also include three novels by Elias Khoury (Gates of the CityThe Journey of Little Gandhi, and The Kingdom of Strangers) and three novels by Rashid al-Daif (This Side of Innocence Learning English, and Who’s Afraid of Meryl Streep?). She has also translated Palestinian writer Sahar Khalifeh’s The End of Spring and Adania Shibli’s Touch(Interlink), and Jordanian writer Jamal Naji's Season of Martyrdom. Her most recent translation is Jabbour Douaihy's The American Quarter (Interlink 2018).

About the Author

Paula Haydar is Assistant Professor of Arabic at the University of Arkansas. She holds a PhD degree in comparative literature and an M.F.A. degree in literary translation. She has translated numerous novels by contemporary Lebanese, Palestinian, and Jordanian authors. Her translation of Lebanese novelist Jabbour Douaihy’s June Rain was selected as the highly commended runner-up of the 2014 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation and also made the Daily Star’s list of Top Middle East Novels of 2014. Her translations of Lebanese authors also include three novels by Elias Khoury (Gates of the City, The Journey of Little Gandhi, and The Kingdom of Strangers) and three novels by Rashid al-Daif (This Side of Innocence , Learning English, and Who’s Afraid of Meryl Streep?). She has also translated Palestinian writer Sahar Khalifeh’s The End of Spring and Adania Shibli’s Touch(Interlink), and Jordanian writer Jamal Naji’s Season of Martyrdom. Her most recent translation is Jabbour Douaihy’s The American Quarter (Interlink 2018).

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