- Laylā al-Aṭrash (?, Palestine / Jordan) – Raghbāt… Dhāk al-Kharīf (‘Desires… That fall’, 2009). This novel focusses on a group of young men and women from different backgrounds who live both inside and outside of Jordan and shows how the political and social context in the region from 2002 until 2005, such as the failure of the peace process and the economic recession, reflect on the life and dreams of its characters (reference). It includes the storyline of young women working in a beauty salon in Amman, and of Sudanese migrants in search for a better life.
- Jalāl Barjas (1970 -, Jordan) – Dafātir al-Qarrāq (‘Notebooks of the bookseller’, 2020). This novel, which won the 14th edition of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2021, is set between 1947 and 2019 in Jordan and Moscow and tells the story of Ibrāhīm, a fervent reader who loses his bookstore and his home (reference). After becoming homeless, he commits a series of crimes while assuming the identities of the protagonists he loves. The novel consists of a series of notebook excerpts that also include stories of other characters, who are marginalized in Jordanian society, and describes the history of Amman (also D: Disabilities, Illness, and Disorders: Psychological Disorders: Schizophrenia)
- ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Munīf (1933 – 2004, Jordan / Saudi Arabia) – Sīrat Madīna: ʿAmmān fī al-Arbaʿīnāt (1994, English trans. Story of a City: A Childhood in Amman, 1996) combines the autobiographical element of the author’s childhood years all through age nineteen, when he leaves Amman, with the chronicle of the city Amman, which is depicted as a multicultural and cosmopolitan city (reference). These two characteristics are also reflected in the protagonist’s own identity, having a Saudi father and an Iraqi mother and being raised in Amman. As such, the text is not only a depiction of his childhood, but also of developing an identity in exile (also in M: Memoires) (reference)
- Jamāl Nājī (1954 – 2018, Jordan / Palestine) – ʿIndamā Tashīkh al-Dhiʾāb (‘When the wolves grow old’, 2009). Reflecting on contemporary Jordanian society, this novel is set in Amman and describes the lives of nine ‘social climbers’ who move from its poor quarters to those of the wealthy and rich (also in S: Social Issues and Societal Changes: Class and Social Change).
- Ziyād Qāsim (1945 – 2007, Jordan) – Abnāʾ al-Qalʿah (‘Children of the citadel’, 1988). This novel describes several characters who live in the neighbourhood of the citadel in the center of Amman and provides a detailed picture of the social fabric of the city at the brink modernity (reference).
- Kafā al-Zuʿaybī (1965-, Jordan) – Shams Bayḍāʾ Bādirah (‘Cold white sun’, 2018). Tells the story of a young Jordanian teacher, Rāʿī, who flees from his authoritarian father to Amman, where he spends his life in a room with no windows, whose former inhabitant was only discovered to be dead after the smell of his corpse was noticed (reference). In the city, Rāʿī befriends Aḥmad. But Aḥmad’s inability to provide for his wife and children with the living standard he wishes for them, leads to his suicide and to a relationship between Rāʿī and Aḥmad’s widow ʿĀʾishah.
Refrences:
- Ziyād al-ʿAnānī. 2011. “Al-Aṭrash: ‘Raghbāt… Dhāk al-Kharīf’ Riwāyah Madīnat ʿAmmān.” www.alghad.com, July 25, 2011 https://alghad.com/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B7%D8%B1%D8%B4-%D8%B1%D8%BA%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%B0%D8%A7%D9%83-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%81-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%85%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%86%D8%A9-%D8%B9/ (last accessed 7 October 2020)
- Manal Shakir. “Review: ‘The Bookseller’s Notebooks’ follows a tragic decent into madness.” www.arabnews.com, 21 February 2023, https://www.arabnews.com/node/2255201/lifestyle (last accessed 11 January 2023)
- Ariel M. Sheetrit. 2014. “The Geography of Identity ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Munīf’s ‘Sīrat madīna: ʿAmmān fī ‘l-arabʿīnāt’.” Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, 14: 27-45, p. 28, 43
- Niḍāl al-Shamālī. 2010. “Thalāth Sanawāt ʿalā Raḥīl Ziyād Qāsim … ‘Abnāʾ al-Qalʿah’ wa Ishkāliyyah al-Rāwī.” www.alrai.com, 6 August 2010, https://alrai.com/article/410569/%D9%85%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD%D9%82/%D8%AB%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AB-%D8%B3%D9%86%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%B1%D8%AD%D9%8A%D9%84-%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%85-%D8%A3%D8%A8%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%A5%D8%B4%D9%83%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%8A (last accessed 22 March 2024)
- ʿAdnān Ḥasīn Aḥmad. 2019. “‘Shams Bayḍāʾ Bāridah’ Muḥākamah al-Sulṭah al-Abawiyah wa al-Siyāsiyah.” www.aawsat.com 4 March 2019 https://aawsat.com/home/article/1616846/%C2%AB%D8%B4%D9%85%D8%B3-%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%B6%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AF%D8%A9%C2%BB-%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%83%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%B7%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%A8%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A9 (last accessed 17 November 2021)