- Saʿūd al-Sanʿūsī (1981-, Kuwait) – Firān Ummī Ḥiṣṣah (2015, English trans. Mama Hissa’s Mice, 2019). Kuwait in the year 2020 is disrupted by sectarian violence. Katkout and his friends Fahd and Ṣādiq are part of a protest group called Faudā’s kids, who broadcast messages against sectarian politics (reference). The novel is divided between the Katkout’s present and the past, which is described in his novel, ‘Ithr al-Nār’ (‘The Inheritance of Fire’). This storyline includes scenes of Katkout’s childhood memories, such as hearing Fahd’s grandmother Mama Hissa’s stories and experiencing the Gulf War. Like Katkout’s publisher censoring his novel in the storyline, Mama Hissa’s Mice was banned in Kuwait for several years (also in S: Speculative Fiction: Dystopia).
- Nāṣṣir al-Ẓafīrī (1960 – 2019, Kuwait) – Al-Ṣahad (‘The heat’, 2013). This historical novel on the Kuwati Bidūn includes passages describing the city of Kuwait through their eyes, including the city’s diverse inhabitants. It is also set in the Kuwaiti desert, as well as the countries some of its narrators chose to migrate to, and sheds light on the social conditions and identities of the Bidūn. It is part of a trilogy titled al-Jahrā (‘al-Jahra’), that includes Kālīskā (‘Caliska’, 2015) (see in in S: Social Issues and Social Change: The Marginalized: The Bidūn) and Al-Masṭar (‘The document’, 2017), which deal with identity in exile and the history of the Bidūn as related to the history of Kuwait.
Refrences:
- Sumaiyya Naseem. 2020. “A Dystopian vision of Kuwait: Mama Hissa’s Mice.” www.english.alaraby.co.uk, 3 March 2020 https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/society/2020/3/3/a-dystopian-vision-of-kuwait-mama-hissas-mice (last accessed 29 March 2020)