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by Elias Khoury (Author), Humphrey Davies (Translator)
Lit by the sublime beauty and tragedy of classical Arabic poetry, a Palestinian falafel seller in New York sets out to shape fragments of his family history
Weaving history, memory, and poetry, this unforgettable novel--and the 1st book in a trilogy--provides a sprawling memorial to the Nakba and the strangled lives left in its wake. Long exiled in New York, Palestinian ex-pat Adam Dannoun thought he knew himself. But an encounter with Blind Mahmoud, a father figure from his childhood, changes everything. It is when Adam encounters his former teacher that Adam discovers the story he must tell. Ma'moun's testimony brings Adam back to the first years of his life in the ghetto of Lydia, in Palestine, where his family endured thirst, hunger, and terror in the aftermath of unspeakable horror. With unmatched literary craft and empathy, Khoury peels away layers of lost stories and repressed memories to unveil Adam's story. Oscillating between two narrators--the self-reflexive "Elias Khoury" and Adam himself--Children of the Ghetto: My Name is Adam engages real (and invented) scholarly texts, Khoury's own work, and Adam's lost notebooks in an intertextual account of a life shadowed by atrocity.Author Biography
Elias Khoury (1948-2024) was a novelist, journalist, playwright, and lifelong activist for social justice. His novel Gate of the Sun, called 'a genuine masterwork' by the New York Times, was named Best Book of the Year by Le Monde Diplomatique, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Christian Science Monitor. Also available through Archipelago: Yalo, As Though She Were Sleeping (winner of France's Arabic Novel Prize), Broken Mirrors, and White Masks.
Humphrey Davies is a translator of Arabic fiction, historical, and classical texts. His translations include Elias Khoury's Yalo, Naguid Mahfouz's Thebes at War and Midaqq Alley, Alla Al-Aswany's The Yacoubian Building and Friendly Fire, Hamdy el-Gazzar's Black Magic, Mohamed Mustagab's Tales of Dayrut, and the four-volume 19th century Arabic experimental novel, Leg over Leg, by Faris Al-Shidyaq. A two-time winner of the Banipal Prize, he is also the recipient of the English PEN Writers In Translation Award. Davies lives in Cairo.
