- Leila Aboulela (1964-, Sudan) – The Translator (1999). Written in English, this novel focusses on the role of religion in the relationship between the young, widowed Sudanese Muslim Sammar, who works as a translator in a Scottish university, and the secular Scottish Middle East scholar Rae (reference). While at first only religion can comfort Sammar after her husband’s death, Rae’s love offers her happiness. After Samar returns to Sudan to be with her son, Rae follows her, where he converts to Islam to marry Sammar (reference).
- Rabih Alameddine (1959-, Lebanon / USA) – An Unnecessary Woman (2013). Protagonist of this novel is the 72-year-old Aaliya Saleh, who, from her solitary apartment, translates novels into Arabic from existing French and English translations (reference). The novel reflects Aaliya’s life story, one in which she couldn’t fulfil her full potential due to a lack of choices and possibilities, and the war ravaging Beirut. Her story is intertwined by the literature she reads and translates, her translations never being published as it is the process that she is interested in (reference). As such, the novel poses questions on the translatability and role of literature, and the ‘unnecessary’ translator whose efforts are never visible (also in C: Cities: Lebanon: Beirut).
- Fawwāz Ḥaddād (1947-, Syria) – al-Mutarjim al-Khāʾin (‘The unfaithful translator’, 2008). Protagonist of this novel, the Syrian Ḥāmid Salīm, translates a Sudanese novel written in English to Arabic, but concludes his translation with an alternative ending that fits his own ideological view (reference). In the original novel, a brilliant young Sudanese man settles in Europe, but Ḥāmid adds a final chapter in which he eventually returns to Sudan. This is exposed by a local well-know journalist and Ḥāmid is subsequently battered by the cultural establishment (reference). The remainder of the novel describes his search to restore his name and reflects on questions of the art of translation as well as the relationship between art and politics.
- Inʿām Kachachī (1952-, Iraq) – al-Ḥafīdah al-Amrīkiyyah (2008, English trans. The American Granddaughter, 2009). This novel depicts the physical and emotion devastation of Iraq after the US-led invasion though the eyes of Zīna, an American with Iraqi origins who returns to Iraq as a US-embedded translator providing cultural advice. When she is also involved in several raids, she feels caught between two identities and between loyalty and duty. The title of the book refers to the fact that Zīna must hide from her own grandmother that she works with ‘the occupiers’, with whom she becomes disillusioned when American marines abuse her while she tries to do her job (reference) (also in 2003 – 2011 US-led Invasion of Iraq).
- Khalīl al-Razz (1956-, Syria) – Al-Ḥayy al-Rūsī (‘The Russian neighborhood’, 2019). This novel is narrated by a Syrian Russian-Arabic translator who lives in a zoo in the Russian quarter of Damascus together with Fīktūr Iyfānītsh, director of the zoo, a giraffe, two dogs, and a bird. Despite the neighborhood’s attempts to stay isolated from the outside world, the existing war manages to seep in and confront the characters (reference). The novel also reflects on the cultural and political role of Russia in Syria (also in W: Outside the Arab World: Russia and the former Soviet Union).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Shadhā Muṣṭafā. 2008. “al-Riwaʾiyah Laylā Abū al-ʿAlā li-‘al-Sharq al-Awsaṭ’: al-Adab al-Muʿāṣir Yatajāhil Dawr al-Dīn fī Bināʾ al-Shakhṣiyāt.” 12 June 2008 https://archive.aawsat.com/details.asp?issueno=10626&article=474545 (last accessed 23 November 2021)
- Christina Phillps. 2012. “Leila Aboulela’s The Translator.” Wasafiri 27 (1): 66-72, p. 68
- Natasha Lvovich. 2021. “Translator and Translated Twice Removed: Multilingual Selfhood in Rabih Alameddine’s ‘An Unnecessary Women’.” CounterText 7(2): 251-262, p. 251, 253
- Max Weiss. 2015. “What Lies Beneath: Political Criticism in Recent Syrian Fiction.” In Syria from Reform to Revolt Volume 2: Culture, Society, and Religion, eds. Christa Salamandra and Leif Stenberg. Syracuse University Press: Syracuse, 16-36 p. 23
- Max Weiss. 2013. “Who Laughs Last: Literary Transformations of Syrian Authoritarianism.” in Middle East Authoritarianisms: Governance Contestation and Regime Resilience in Syria and Iran, eds. Steven Heydemann and Reinoud Leenders, Stanford University Press: Palo Alto, 143-169, p. 151
- Ikram Masmoudi. 2015. War and Occupation in Iraqi Fiction. p. 136, 160
- Mūsā Ibrahīm Abū Riyāsh. 2020. “Riwāyah ‘al-Ḥayy al-Rūsī’ li-Khalīl al-Razz wa al-Waham al-Murīḥ.” www.alquds.co.uk, 31 March 2020, https://www.alquds.co.uk/رواية-الحي-الروسي-لخليل-الرز-والوهم/ (last accessed 5 May 2023)