- Wāsīnī al-Arʿaj (1954-, Algeria) – Ramād al-Sharqqqq: Kharīf Nīwyūrk al-Akhīr (‘Ashes from the east: New York’s last fall’, 2012). This novel starts with a scene of the twin towers falling on a New York fall day. Its hero is a young Arab Jazz musician who is writing a symphony. The novel is the first of a two-novel series Ramād al-Sharq. The second novel is entitled Ramād al-Sharq: al-Dhʾib Alathī Nabata fī al-Barārī (see O: Occupations, Professions and Hobbies: Musicians)
- Dāliyyā Basiyūnī (?, Egypt) and her theater group Sabīl lil-Fanūn (‘Way of the arts’) produced a play titled Sūlītīr (‘Solitaire’, 2011) which links 9/11 attacks with the 2011 revolution in Egypt as both being important events that changed and shaped the modern Arab identity both in Arab countries as in Western countries (reference). In it, the lives of three Egyptian women, a mother and two daughters, are depicted. The mother lives in Cairo and recalls her live while playing Solitaire on the computer. The youngest daughter goes through an identity crisis while stuck in a traffic jam in Cairo together with her husband. The eldest daughter who lives in New York, tries to figure out who she is as an Arab after 9/11 (reference) (also in 2011 Arab Uprisings: Egypt).
- Slimane Benaïssa (1943-, Algeria) – La dernière nuit d’un damné (2003, English trans. The Last Night of a Damned Soul, 2004). Written in response to the 9/11 bombings this novel tells the story of the 31-year old Raouf, a westernized Muslim and a software developer in Silicon Valley with an American girlfriend, turning into a suicide bomber after his depression following his father’s sudden death (reference). Through his ‘jihadi’ friend Athman and conversations with various Imams, Raouf radicalizes, rejecting completely his former social environment although he eventually he becomes skeptical of his new life (reference) (also in I: Ideologies and Political Movements:Islamic Extremism: (De) Radicalization).
- Āsiyyah ʿAbd al-Hādī (1945-, Palestine) – Gharb al-Muḥīṭ (‘West of the ocean’, 2012). This novel tells the story of a family full of hope for the future who migrates to New York (reference). The family is disillusioned however, to discover the different social classes in American society. While the mother of the family was a respected teacher in her own country, she takes on the job of a cleaner in the USA. They also discover that social relations are not based on being American, but on what origins that American has, and that Americans from Arab origin face discrimination and scrutiny following the 9/11 attacks (also in W: Outside if the Arab World: Americas: United States of America).
- Binsālim Ḥimmīsh (1948-, Morocco) – Muʿadhdhibatī (2010, English trans. My Torturess, 2015). When a young Moroccan bookseller, Ḥamūdah, is accused of being a jihadi activist, he is drugged, imprisoned, and tortured, primarily by a French woman known as al-Ghūlah (‘The Ogre’) (reference). The novel is set after his release following a period of six years in the unknown prison, and describes his experiences. The novel is a reference to the post 9/11 period, in which ‘The War on Terror’ allowed the US and its allies to arrest and abuse people without charge or trail (also in G: Dysfunctional Governance: Prison Literature and Torture).
- Amara Lakhous (1970-, Algeria) – Divorzio all’islamica a viale Marconi (2010, English trans. Divorce Islamic Style, 2012). A young Sicilian court translator who speaks perfectly Arabic infiltrates a group of Muslim immigrants based in Rome’s Viale Macroni neighborhood after the Italian secret service has received Intel that they are planning a terrorist attack. The novel combines the central themes of migrant and non-migrant interaction post 9/11 and “the construction of the Muslim community as a threat to Europe” (reference) (also in W: Outside the Arab world: Europe: Italy).
- Ṭālib ʿUmrān (1948- , Syria) – al-Azmān al-Muẓlima (‘Dark times’, 2003). Set in 2025, this novel describes a dark outlook on the future of the Arab world which is controlled by a global Western junta that humiliates and oppresses the Arab citizen (reference). In this world, Bītar, a Western doctor, tries to save Qāssim from being a guinea pig for immoral biological experiments in one of the authority’s prisons. The novel can be read as a criticism of the post-September 11 attack on the Arab world, in which the hunt for terrorists lead to extremism and strong opposition, pushing the world into a violent vicious cycle (also in S: Speculative Fiction: Dystopia).
- Yūsuf Zaydān (1958-, Egypt) – Jwāntānāmū (‘Guantanamo’, 2014). Tells the story of a prisoner who is transported between prisons: from Kandahar, Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba following the announcement on the ‘War on Terror’ by former US president Bush in 2001.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Māhir Ḥasan. 2011. “Sūlītīr’ Masraḥiyy ʿan al-Maraʾah wa al-Thawra.” www.almasryalyoum.com April 24, 2011 https://www.almasryalyoum.com/news/details/127489 (last accessed November 19, 2021)
- Dalia Basiouny. 2014. “Solitaire, an Egyptian Multimedia Performance.” Arab Stages 1(1)
- John C. Hawley. 2010. “Jihad as rite of passage: TaharDjaout’s ‘The Last Summer of Reason’ and Slimane Benaïssa’s ‘The last Night of a Damned Soul’.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing 46(3-4): 394-404, p. 399, 400
- Rifʿat al- ʿAllān. 2012. “ʿAbd al-hādī Tarṣud Muʿānāh al-Muhājirīn al-ʿArab fī Riwāyatiha ‘Gharb al-Muḥīṭ’.” www.alrai.com, 16 April 2012, https://alrai.com/article/504554/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A3%D9%8A%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%81%D9%8A/%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%8A-%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%B5%D8%AF-%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%A7-%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%8A%D8%B7 (last accessed 5 November 2021)
- Nūr al-Hudā Ghūlī. 2011. “Riwāyah ‘Muʿadhibatī’..ʿAwlamah al-Sujūn.” www.aljazeera.net, 25 January 2011, https://www.aljazeera.net/news/cultureandart/2011/1/25/%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%B0%D8%A8%D8%AA%D9%8A-%D8%B9%D9%88%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%86 (last accessed 27 October 2021)
- Daniele Comberiati. 2016. “Amara Lakhous’s ‘Divorce Islamic Style’: Muslim Conncetions in European Culture.” in The Novel and Europe: Imagining the Continent in Post- 1945 Fiction eds. Andrew Hammoud. Palgrave MacMillan: London. 287-301, p. 288
- ʿAlāʾ Rashīdī. 2020. “Adab Ṭālib ʿUmrān … al-Ḥaḍarāt al-Musālimah al-Qāʾimah ʿalā al-ʿUlūm wa al-Funūn.” www.raseef22.net, 27 June 2020 https://raseef22.net/article/1078716-%D8%A3%D8%AF%D8%A8-%D8%B7%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8-%D8%B9%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B6%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%88%D9%85-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%86%D9%88%D9%86 (last accessed 2 September 2023)