- Zaynab Balīl (1947-, Sudan) – Nabāt al-Ṣabbār (‘The cactus plant’, 2011). This novel depicts the troubles of a group of marginalized residents of a slum, who are removed from their homes after a failed uprising. What follows is a story combining the supernatural and the real, as the residents look to rebuild their lives with the help of demons and genies (reference) (also in L: Culture and Literary Heritage: Folktales).
- Mohammed Dib (1920 – 2003, Algeria) – La Danse du Roi (‘Dance of the King’, 1960). The novel is set in Tlemcen in Algeria, a few years after independence, and focusses on two characters: Rodwan and Arfia. While the first is haunted by his memories, Arfia is a beggar and misfit. The novel focusses on the exclusion of the poor (reference).
- Khayrī Shalabī (1938 – 2011, Egypt) – Wikālah ʿAṭiyyah (1999, Enligish trans. The Lodging House, 2006). In this novel, homeless people and outlaws find refuge in a compound with the name Wikālah ʿAṭiyyah located in the delta city of Damanhour (reference). Among them is the educated narrator, who, when he assaults one of his instructors for discriminating against him, winds up in the underground world of the building. The novel describes the life of Egypt’s urban poor during the Nasser era (reference). It won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 2003.
- Amal Shaṭā (?, Saudi Arabia) – Lā ʿĀsh Qalbī (‘Let my heart no longer live’, 1989). This novel is set in a hospice for homeless women living from charity in Mecca. Its protagonist is the elderly Barrakah, and the novel describes how she and the various other female characters ended up in the hospice, they daily working activities, as well as their social and family environment and the issues they face.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Sawwad Hussain. 2020. “Aperture: Sudanese Female Novelists Coming into Focus.” Words without Borders Special Issue, December 2020. https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/issue/december-2020-sudanese-women-writers (last accessed 5 March 2021)
- Jonathan Adjemian. 2016. To Hold the World Visible: Writing and History in the Work of Mohammed Dib. (doctoral dissertation York University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada) Retrieved from https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10315/32246/Adjemian_Jonathan_2016_PhD.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y p. 5 (last accessed 3 January 2021)
- Susannah Tarbush. 2007. “Book Reviews, ‘The Lodging House’ by Farouk Abdel Wahab.” Banipal (30) retrieved on https://www.banipal.co.uk/book_reviews/32/the-lodging-house-by-khairy-shalaby/ (last accessed 25 July 2023)