"Now Sohail wonders if he should have reserved a little pity for these men. He feels the tug of an earlier self, a still-soft self: geographer, not guerrilla.[...] It is the softer self who leads him to explore the room behind the munitions store, who slides open the heavy metal door, who palms the wall, searching for a light switch - who is met with a sight that will continue to suck the breath out of him for a lifetime to come."
From The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam
Tahmima Anam (*1975)
Tahmima Anam was a complete unknown writer to me. Never heard nor read anything of or by her. When I bought the ticket to see Hanan Al-Shaykh, Tahmima was the complementary author that evening. Young Tahmima was sitting rather shy and demure next to Hanan, obviously acknowledging Hanan's status. But the minute Tahmima reacted to Hanan's recollection of her mother's accusation (see also 'Quote of the Month - April 2012), Tahmima became more and more involved and stronger in her appearance. Having listened to her carefully, Tahmima certainly gained her place next to Hanan.
Tahmima Anam was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her father, Mahfuz Anam, is the editor and publisher of The Daily Star who also worked as a media expert for the UNESCO. Consequently, Tahmima grew up in Paris, New York City and Bangkok. During those years she completed her education in the US where she earned a PhD as anthropologist from Harvard University. Nevertheless, it seems as if her family's background - her own father being editor, her grandfather, Abul Mansur Ahmed, a well-known writer - tugged at her eventually. She turned to writing, completing in 2005 a creative writing course at the University of London with a Master of Arts. Her first novel, A Golden Age was published in 2007 revolving around the Bangladesh Liberation War. The theme echoes in her second novel, The Good Muslim, thus making both books sequels of a "projected trilogy" (Ophelia Field, The Daily Telegraph (11/05/2011)). When Tahmima was interviewed at the EdBookFest, she referred to the 'wounds that war leaves on souls' and its damaging effect. Her own family, both parents and grandparents were closely involved in the Liberation War. What happens to people that are/were involved in a war? How does war influence their future? And how come that, as in The Good Muslim, even years after a war ended families are still fractured? Both her books, A Golden Age and The Good Muslim won Tahmima serious literary prizes. Her style is being described as 'gripping' and 'mesmerizing', her latest novel reviewed as being "a timely drama about the unpredictable effects of religious zealotry and political violence as well as a keen examination of survival and forgiveness" (Valerie Miner, LA Times (14/08/2011)). Probably, we will hear more from her, if not at least read about the third sequel; keep an eye on her - she's certainly worth it!Quote of the Month - April 2012
"Why are you still nibbling from other people's dishes?"
From The Locust and The Bird, My Mother's Story by Hanan Al-Shaykh
From The Locust and The Bird, My Mother's Story by Hanan Al-Shaykh
Hanan Al-Shaykh (*1945)
Hanan Al-Shaykh, a leading contemporary Arab writer of novels, short stories and plays - I met her at the EdBookFest while she presented her newest project: 19 newly adapted of the 1,001 tales from the Arabian Nights in English. She took care to have the stories truthfully translated: piquant, sometimes even luscious, stories definitely revising the 'Disneyfied' children's stories Western readers have come to know. I found it most intriguing to meet another author from the East widening my narrow Western point of view. And with it someone who is not afraid of telling the truth, certainly not wanting to please anyone (not even her mother...). 
Quote of the Month - March 2012
"There was a man dwelt by a churchyard.
Well, no, okay, it wasn't always a man; in this particular case it was a woman. There was a woman dwelt by a churchyard.
Though, to be honest, nobody really uses that word nowadays. Everybody says cemetery. And nobody says dwelt any more. In other words:
There was once a woman who lived by a cemetery. Every morning when she woke up she looked out of her back window and saw -
Actually, no. There was once a woman who lived by - no, in - a second-hand bookshop. She lived in the flat on the first floor and ran the shop which took up the whole of downstairs.There she sat, day after day, among the skulls and the bones of second-hand books, the stacks and shelves of them spanning the lengths and breadths of the long and narrow rooms, the piles of them swaying up, precarious like rootless towers, towards the cracked plaster of the ceiling."
From The Whole Story and other stories, the short story "the universal story" by Ali Smith
Well, no, okay, it wasn't always a man; in this particular case it was a woman. There was a woman dwelt by a churchyard.
Though, to be honest, nobody really uses that word nowadays. Everybody says cemetery. And nobody says dwelt any more. In other words:
There was once a woman who lived by a cemetery. Every morning when she woke up she looked out of her back window and saw -
Actually, no. There was once a woman who lived by - no, in - a second-hand bookshop. She lived in the flat on the first floor and ran the shop which took up the whole of downstairs.There she sat, day after day, among the skulls and the bones of second-hand books, the stacks and shelves of them spanning the lengths and breadths of the long and narrow rooms, the piles of them swaying up, precarious like rootless towers, towards the cracked plaster of the ceiling."
From The Whole Story and other stories, the short story "the universal story" by Ali Smith
Ali Smith (*1962)
Another featured author at the EdBookFest in 2011. Unfortunately, Ali Smith read at the festival while I was checking in at Schiphol. So, I missed her voice. After having read her short story collection "The Whole Story and other stories", I am even more aware of what I've missed. Her very original voice, her wittiness of breaking with literary conventions, jumping from one first-person narrator to another and leaving it undefined whether it is a female or male narrator. She is constantly triggering the reader to sort out the storyline and get the right point of view, not taking one along a well-trodden path. Additionally, she plays with conventions and breaks with everyday concepts. Like, say, falling in love with a tree as in the short story "may"?
"I tell you. I fell in love with a tree. I couldn't not. It was in blossom."
Reason enough, sure, but, hey, a tree? And be assured, it is not a bird or squirrel talking....So another witty Scottish author, Ali Smith was born in Inverness, Scotland, UK. According to wikipedia, Smith was born to "working-class parents" and "raised in a council house" (mind you!). She studied at the University of Aberdeen and went to Newnham College at Cambridge to never finish her PhD. While working as a lecturer at the University of Strathclyde she fell ill with the myalgic encephalomyelitis syndrom, or more commonly named, the chronic fatigue syndrom. She now lives with her partner Sarah Wood in Cambridge and is a full-time writer besides of writing for various newspapers as The Guardian, The Scotsman and the Times Literary Supplement. Her brilliant talent lies in exploring the everyday for unexpected beauty and at the same time picturing the comedy in it while capturing bizarre psychological territories. Her canny style won her already various prizes, several of her short stories were shortlisted and the critics are full of praise. Certainly a modern writer you shouldn't miss.
"I tell you. I fell in love with a tree. I couldn't not. It was in blossom."
Reason enough, sure, but, hey, a tree? And be assured, it is not a bird or squirrel talking....So another witty Scottish author, Ali Smith was born in Inverness, Scotland, UK. According to wikipedia, Smith was born to "working-class parents" and "raised in a council house" (mind you!). She studied at the University of Aberdeen and went to Newnham College at Cambridge to never finish her PhD. While working as a lecturer at the University of Strathclyde she fell ill with the myalgic encephalomyelitis syndrom, or more commonly named, the chronic fatigue syndrom. She now lives with her partner Sarah Wood in Cambridge and is a full-time writer besides of writing for various newspapers as The Guardian, The Scotsman and the Times Literary Supplement. Her brilliant talent lies in exploring the everyday for unexpected beauty and at the same time picturing the comedy in it while capturing bizarre psychological territories. Her canny style won her already various prizes, several of her short stories were shortlisted and the critics are full of praise. Certainly a modern writer you shouldn't miss.
Quote of the Month - February 2012
"Yawning, I shambled downstairs. I thought Lola Nan had stopped hoovering, but when I pushed open the lounge door she was still at it, only the Hoover wasn't switched on. Her head jerked up and she stared wildly at me, shoving the vacuum cleaner back and forth. Her bone-white hair stuck out all over, as if she'd plugged herself into the socket by mistake.
'Want a cup of tea, Lola Nan?' I said.
'I can't hear you!' she shouted.
'Cup of tea?' I shouted back. God, I'd make someone a great husband one day. I was that used to humouring crazy women.
From Crossing the Line by Gillian Philip.
'Want a cup of tea, Lola Nan?' I said.
'I can't hear you!' she shouted.
'Cup of tea?' I shouted back. God, I'd make someone a great husband one day. I was that used to humouring crazy women.
From Crossing the Line by Gillian Philip.
Gillian Philip *1964
I am not usually reading Young Adult (YA) novels, but a friendly visitor at the EdBookFest advocated Gillian's writings to me (well, actually, he's a friend of Gillian and a barrister with it...). Out of curiosity, I bought one of her books, Crossing the Line, and went to her reading at the festival. So, another 'lesser known' female writer to present:
Gillian Philip was born in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. When she was 11 years old, the family moved to Aberdeen. Besides of spending a lot of time on the beach, she liked to write already from an early age onwards with English being her favourite subject at school. Nevertheless, she chose to read Politics & International Relations at the University, doing odd jobs afterwards, as assisting an aspiring MP who she married in 1989. In 1990, the couple moved to Barbados where Gillian decided to turn to writing seriously. She had several short stories published in magazines but only in 2001, when returning to Scotland, she turned to novels for young adults. Her first full length novel Bad Faith was published in 2008. In the meantime she published several stories covering various genres, including crime, horror and fantasy. She also publishes under the name Gabriella Poole, writing for the 'Darke Academy' series, the 'Rebel Angels' series and 'Shades'. Furthermore she ghostwrites fiction for Evans Brothers, a publisher specialised on books for the UK curriculum.
What I thought about my first YA book: Though there are some flaws in the consistency of the first-person narrator, the seventeen year old Nick ("Ah, hormones and lust, there is no reasoning with them" ???), I was astonished about the intensity of the events taken place and the way the main character handles them. Very dense and emotionally stirring, still the story line stays calm - a very well composed arrangement and well kept to the limited point of view. I was glad to have taken this side path in literature for once.
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