Son'allah Ibrahim (born 1937) is an Egyptian

Egyptians

Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...

 novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

ist and short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 writer and one of the "Sixties Generation" who is known for his leftist and nationalist views which are expressed rather directly in his work. His novels, especially later ones, incorporate many excerpts from newspapers, magazines and other political sources as a way to enlighten the people about a certain political or social issue. Because of his political opinions he was imprisoned during the 1960s; his imprisonment is featured in his first book, a collection of short stories titled That Smell (تلك الرائحة), which was one of the first writings in Egyptian literature to adopt a modernist tinge. His last book Memoirs of the Oasis Prison returns to the same theme.

In harmony with his political ideas, he recently refused to accept a prestigious literary award worth 100,000 Egyptian pounds from Egypt's ministry of culture.

Writings

His novels are typically told in the first person, in a cold objective tone resembling press reportage which mimics reality. His main theme seems to be the importance of resisting the influence of the political mega-powers which attempt to invade the third world economically through many ways including the transcontinental companies. As an example, "Sharaf" [=Honour] deals with the intrusion of American politics in Egypt and includes long passages frankly criticising the big drug companies and their policies in third world countries. His interests are not limited to the situation in Egypt; "Beirut..Beirut" is something like an overview of the Lebanese civil war of the '70s and '80s, and "Warda" reveals a little-known episode about the activities of leftists and communists in Yemen and Oman in the '60s and '70s. The title of one of his latest novels is "Amricanly" which superficially means " American" or "in an American way" but is really a parody of another word "Othmanly" related to the notorious Dark Ages when Turkey ruled Egypt. The word "Amricanly" in another way is almost a transliteration of the phrase "My affairs were mine" in Arabic. His novel, "The Committee" is often described by critics as kafkaesque. In it the protagonist seeks entry into a shadowy organization. He is routinely subject to their vetting process and Sonallah uses his character to make numerous political observations in the form of speeches to the committee.

Works

• "That smell", short stories تلك الرائحة (Some editions: The Smell of It-Liberal translation)
• "The committee", a novel اللجنة
• "The star of August", a novel نجمة أغسطس
• "Beirut..Beirut", a novel بيروت بيروت
• "Zat" [=Self], a novel ذات
• "Sharaf" [=Honour], a novel شرف
• "Warda",[=Rose] a novel وردة
• "Amricanly", a novel "أمرى كان لى "أمريكانلى
• "Memoirs of the Oasis prison", autobiographical مذكرات سجن الواحات
• "Cairo from Edge to Edge " a portrait of Cairo with photogrepher Jean Pierre Ribiere
• "Al-talassos"
• "Al-’amâma wal-qobba’a"

Works in English Translation

• Zaat (ذات), translated by Anthony Calderbank
  Anthony Calderbank
  Anthony Calderbank is an English translator of contemporary Arabic literature. He was educated at Manchester University where he studied Arabic and Persian. He lived in Egypt for several years in the mid-1980s, making his home in the Cairo neighbourhood of Shubra...
  
  , 2004
• Stealth (التلصص), translated by Hosam Aboul-Ela, 2010
• The Smell of It (تلك الرائحة), translated by Denys Johnson Davies, 1978
• Cairo From Edge to Edge, 1998
• The Committee (اللجنة), translated by Charlene Constable and Mary St Germain, 2001

External links

• Son'allah Ibrahim refusing a prize
• Sonallah Ibrahim bio-bibliography