Praise
Elias Khoury's latest novel returns to a golden age. Beirut in the '30s, unoccupied Palestine and a love affair recalled through a set of dream sequences: an Arab spring of a very different sort.
There has been powerful fiction about Palestinians and by Palestinians, but few have held to the light the myths, tales and rumors of both Israel and the Arabs with such discerning compassion.
The beautiful, resilient city of Beirut belongs to Khoury.
No Lebanese writer has been more successful than Elias Khoury in telling the story of Lebanon ... Khoury is one of the most innovative novelists in the Arab world.
An immersive reading experience.... A dreamy account of a woman who slips in and out of consciousness, whose inner reality hides from but cannot help but absorb the chaotic world outside of her ... The outside world rushes onward, inevitably, and yet Meelya’s inner dream world circles around itself, creating a sensual whirlpool. The conflict between these two worlds makes for an enchanting and singular read.
An enchanting hymn to the Middle East, infused with the richness and beauty of classical Arabic poetry.
Elias Khoury is a pure storyteller. A writer who understands the hypnotic power of words, and who lets this power become the actual subject of his books. Of course, alongside the words, there is reality, palpable, sensuous, atrocious.
Enthralling ... Mesmerizing.
Gives the flavor of a very important novelist's core philosophies and obsessions through a woman's last memories. . . . Marilyn Booth does well rebuilding the book's carefully crafted, circling sentences in smooth English.
Extras
Listen to Elias Khoury speak about As Though She Were Sleeping at Open Book, Minneapolis:
Listen to Elias Khoury read from As Though She Were Sleeping.
Read a comparison of two translations of As Though She Were Sleeping.
Read Part One and Part Two of an overview of Elias Khoury’s writing and the process of literary translation.
Read about Elias Khoury’s relationship to his writing from a talk called “Translating Palestine.”
Watch and listen to a conversation with translator Humphrey Davies and André Naffis-Sahely.
Read an interview with Elias Khoury about the relationship between an author and his characters.
Read about Elias Khoury’s discussion of the Arab Spring from a child’s perspective.
Elias Khoury, Mona Eltahawy, & Rula Jebreal at the PEN World Voices event Understanding Egypt (May 3, 2012):
Listen to Elias Khoury talk about GATE OF THE SUN on Michael Silverblatt’s BookWorm, 2006:
Listen to an interview with Elias Khoury at KNPR, Nevada Public Radio.
Elias Khoury interviewed in Haaretz.
Read a profile of Elias Khoury, the “essential Arab novelist today,” on The Daily Beast.
