PortadaGruposCharlasMásPanorama actual
Buscar en el sitio
Este sitio utiliza cookies para ofrecer nuestros servicios, mejorar el rendimiento, análisis y (si no estás registrado) publicidad. Al usar LibraryThing reconoces que has leído y comprendido nuestros términos de servicio y política de privacidad. El uso del sitio y de los servicios está sujeto a estas políticas y términos.

Resultados de Google Books

Pulse en una miniatura para ir a Google Books.

Cargando...

The Loved Ones: A Modern Arabic Novel

por Alia Mamdouh

MiembrosReseñasPopularidadValoración promediaMenciones
291809,248 (2.75)3
Suhaila lies in a coma in a Paris hospital. The loved ones of the title are the constellation of friends, predominantly women, who flock to Suhaila's side from all over the world to envelope her in the warmth of friendship that may ultimately save her and enable her rebirth. Suhaila comes alive through the stories about her: her excesses, her love of dancing, of wine, and of poetry, despite years of abuse by her Iraqi husband, the bleakness of exile from home, and the frustrating separation from her only son.The Loved Ones is an intimately moving, polyphonic narrative of displacement and nomadism, a disjointed, at times disfigured tale that blends diverse time frames so that the past, the present, and the future are unified, interlocked, and intertwined. This award-winning novel is a hymn to friendship and to boundless giving that ultimately restores life--it is a story about memory and history, a story against forgetting.… (más)
Ninguno
Cargando...

Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará.

Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro.

» Ver también 3 menciones

Prize winning Arabic novel.

I found this book incredibly difficult to read. I had to force myself to read 20 pages per day to read it in time for a book group. I had wondered if the translation was partly to blame, but some of our members read it in Arabic and had the same response.

The central character, Suhaila, is only known to us through her friends and her son. She is unconscious throughout the book and they are visiting with gifts and much conversation, with her (one way), and with each other. They also discuss her with her son, Nader, who has come over from Canada on hearing of his mother's illness. However, we never actually discover what is causing her ailments. The doctor says: "A surge in her blood pressure set off tremors in the veins that send the blood to the brain. There was a hemorrhage and it stopped....." P131.

Through all these interactions we learn of her early life in Iraq and subsequent exile to Paris. Her arranged marriage to an Iraqi soldier had been unhappy and abusive and she had left Iraq when he had disappeared. Her son appears to have been distant both geographically and mentally and he has left his young wife and their son back in Canada.

The problem is, nothing happens. The whole book is a conversation between various characters, who, in turn describe other characters. What little I learned of life in Iraq was padded out with an excess of language that made every page a struggle.

The author is due to make an appearance at the Dubai Literary Festival in March this year, perhaps I will glean a little more of the book's meaning then. Meanwhile, I am dreading my next read, Naphtalene, also by Alia Mamdouh, and for another book group. It does get slightly better ratings, so fingers crossed. ( )
  DubaiReader | Jan 15, 2014 |
sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
Debes iniciar sesión para editar los datos de Conocimiento Común.
Para más ayuda, consulta la página de ayuda de Conocimiento Común.
Título canónico
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés. Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Título original
Títulos alternativos
Fecha de publicación original
Personas/Personajes
Lugares importantes
Acontecimientos importantes
Películas relacionadas
Epígrafe
Dedicatoria
Primeras palabras
Citas
Últimas palabras
Aviso de desambiguación
Editores de la editorial
Blurbistas
Idioma original
DDC/MDS Canónico
LCC canónico

Referencias a esta obra en fuentes externas.

Wikipedia en inglés

Ninguno

Suhaila lies in a coma in a Paris hospital. The loved ones of the title are the constellation of friends, predominantly women, who flock to Suhaila's side from all over the world to envelope her in the warmth of friendship that may ultimately save her and enable her rebirth. Suhaila comes alive through the stories about her: her excesses, her love of dancing, of wine, and of poetry, despite years of abuse by her Iraqi husband, the bleakness of exile from home, and the frustrating separation from her only son.The Loved Ones is an intimately moving, polyphonic narrative of displacement and nomadism, a disjointed, at times disfigured tale that blends diverse time frames so that the past, the present, and the future are unified, interlocked, and intertwined. This award-winning novel is a hymn to friendship and to boundless giving that ultimately restores life--it is a story about memory and history, a story against forgetting.

No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca.

Descripción del libro
Resumen Haiku

Debates activos

Ninguno

Cubiertas populares

Enlaces rápidos

Valoración

Promedio: (2.75)
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5 1
3 1
3.5
4
4.5
5

¿Eres tú?

Conviértete en un Autor de LibraryThing.

 

Acerca de | Contactar | LibraryThing.com | Privacidad/Condiciones | Ayuda/Preguntas frecuentes | Blog | Tienda | APIs | TinyCat | Bibliotecas heredadas | Primeros reseñadores | Conocimiento común | 203,218,423 libros! | Barra superior: Siempre visible