- Mays Khālid al-ʿUthmān (?, Kuwait) – Thʾulūl (‘Solutions’, 2015). The story of this novel is set in Kuwait and depicts a 13-year-old girl, Salwā, who is raped by an Iraqi soldier during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait resulting in pregnancy (reference). She flees to Egypt where she gives birth and gives the baby to her parents, after which she herself struggles between her feelings of being a mother and a sister. The novel reflects on the social effect of the Iraqi invasion: Salwā represents the Kuwaiti nation and her rape, just as the Iraqi invasion, was quick but has long-lasting consequences (reference) (also in F: Children and Family Life: Parent and Child: Mother and Child).
- Ismāʿīl Fahd Ismāʿīl (1940 – 2018, Kuwait) – Fī Haḍrat al-ʿAnqāʾ wa al-Khal al-Wafī (‘The phoenix and the faithful friend’, 2014). This novel is the life story of Mansi ibn Abihī (meaning ‘Mansi the son of his father’), an inhabitant of Kuwait from the Bidūn class, thus who does not have citizenship. He narrates his story to his daughter, Zaynab, who he has never seen, after being released from a Kuwaiti prison after the country’s liberation from Iraq. Among others, he describes his suffering as a Bidūn in Kuwait, the invasion of Kuwait, his time in the Iraqi army and his escape to join the Kuwaiti army, and his imprisonment (also in S: Social Issues and Societal Change: The Marginalized).
- Fawziyyah Shuwaysh al-Sālim (?, Kuwait) – Rajīm al-Kalām (‘Speech diet’, 2007) reflects on the psychological effects of the Iraqi invasion through describing the narrator’s research into the documentation of Kuwaiti soldiers who died in the war. The novel also describes the mass graves in Kuwait, the disappearance of soldiers, and the fall of Baghdad.
- Ḥayat al-Yāqūn (1981-, Kuwait) – Ka-al-luʾluʾ (‘Like pearls’, 2012). This novel is narrated by the heroine in a dairy style from her entry into kindergarten into her adulthood starting before the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq and continuing through the invasion and its effect on the daily lives of Kuwaiti families. The narrator’s family is forced to flee towards Saudi Arabia in the south, after which the narrator describes the family waiting for the liberation of Kuwait and their return (reference) (also in F: Children and Family Life: Children and Adolescents: War and devastation through children’s eyes).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- al-Kabīr al-Dādīsī. 2018. Masārāt al-riwāyah al-ʿarabiyyah al-muʿāṣirah. Muʾassah al-raḥāb al-ḥadīthah: Bayrūt, p. 23, 25, 26