- Emna Bel Haj Yahia’s (1945-, Tunisia) L’Étage invisible (‘The invisible floor’, 1996) focusses on the lives of two dissimilar siblings, Yacine and Aïcha, in present-day Tunis (reference). The novel portrays their inside world and thought-process, as they describe the city of Tunis the way they experience it. The physician Yacine lives a happy life, married with two children, while his divorced sister, a sociologist, lives alone and is in constant battle with her social environment (reference).
- Ḥabīb al-Sālimī (1951-, Tunisia) – Nisāʾ al-Basātīn (‘Women of al-Basatin’, 2010). Published right before the outbreak of the Arab uprisings, the novel portrays the contradictions between religious traditions and the modernity of Tunisia’s capital through the lives of several characters. Its hero, Tawfīq, returns to Tunis after five years of living and teaching in France whilst married to a French woman, and is surprised to find that the capital, including his family members, became more religiously conservative. Nevertheless, he soon discovers that the city has not completely lost its ‘wild’ side.
Refrences:
- Rowswitha Zahlner Casmier. 2015. “Emerging Narrative Worlds in Emna Belhaj Yahia’s Novels ‘Chronique frontalière’ (1991), ‘L’Étage invisible’ (1996), ‘Tasharej’ (2000), and ‘Jeux de rubans’ (2011).” Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association 48(2): 113-136, p. 115, 121