Month: March 2005

No, not that kind. An excerpt of Christopher Hitchens’ introduction to a new edition of Isabel Allende’s The House of The Spirits appears in last Saturday’s Guardian.

Gaza Blues, the collection of short fiction by Samir Al-Youssef and Etgar Keret that I’ve mentioned before, gets the Daily Star treatment.

“The idea for the book came up in the beginning of 2002,” explains Keret, also speaking via e-mail. “There wasn’t a day without casualties both on the Palestinian and the Israeli side and things seemed even more hopeless than they usually are in our region. Samir called me and, like me, he was very depressed. He said that we [could] do something. I said to him jokingly that there is very little the two of us are able to do except write stories … A day later Samir called back with the idea for ‘Gaza Blues.'”

Keret insists that the point of the book is not to make a difference in grand terms. “Gaza Blues” is not an achingly idealistic attempt to broker an Arab-Israeli peace through literature. Rather, it carves out intimate space where as yet unexplored dimensions of the conflict may be probed. It resists falling prey to identity politics, and as such it appeals to anyone who might feel compelled to take a deep and weary breath before answering such questions as “What are you?” or “Where are you from?” Moreover, “Gaza Blues” is marked throughout by dark humor, touches of surrealism, and hip urban language.

“Our collaboration is meant to refer to a different area in the Palestine/Israel issue,” says Youssef. “And different means that which is deliberately overlooked and marginalized such as, in my case, the reality of the fragmentary nature of Palestinian society. There isn’t only one Palestinian society but many and different, and that’s why the Palestine/Israel issue is not limited to a certain geography or history.”

And still no U.S. publisher. What a shame.

The winners of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Awards have been announced. They are John Dalton for Heaven Lake (fiction) and Alison Smith for Name All the Animals (non-fiction).

I was saddened by this news report about the death of 37 people off the coast of Morocco. The would-be migrants had used the city of Al-Hoceima as a departure point, instead of leaving from Tangier, which is approximately 10 miles away from Spain. They wanted to avoid the radar systems recently put in place by the EU, but their route was much further away, and many of them drowned. The details in the report were eerily similar to some I had imagined for my book. One passenger, for instance, had a university degree in mathematics, and had tried everything he could to find a job. He paid the exorbitant sum of $6,000 in order to try his luck on a boat, hoping to find a job in Europe. One of my characters, Murad, has a similar background, and the same notion that immigration will help him solve his problems. His belief is of course, based on the stories he hears from those who’ve made it:

Amidst such problems some emigrants return on holidays to show off, Nadif said. “They drive around in fancy cars with Italian number plates. They make Europe sound like an El Dorado.”

“I know Europe is not a paradise,” says Farid, a 25-year-old with a degree in French literature. “But I do know a European can find a job with one of my degrees.”

But stories like this one, of people drowning or ships sinking, slip by without registering on anyone’s mind for too long. It’s like the lottery. No one thinks of the losers. It’s much too comforting to think of the winner.

This week, I’d like to give out a copy of Best American Erotica 2005, edited by Susie Bright. One of the reasons I picked up this book is because it contains “Surviving Darwin,” a poignant and funny story by Alicia Gifford, who is, in my opinion, the best writer you don’t know about.

I’ll send a copy of the book to the first person who emails me at llalami AT yahoo DOT com. Please provide your mailing address.

Update: The winner is Roneesh V. from Sydney, Ohio. Congratulations!

Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka was on a radio show yesterday, and you can listen to the show online.