I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops - Softcover

Al-Shaykh, Hanan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385491271 ISBN 13: 9780385491273

Publisher: Anchor, 1998

Synopsis

Since the U.S. publication of Women of Sand and Myrrh--which has now sold more than 35,000 copies and was selected as one of the Fifty Best Books of 1992 by Publishers Weekly--Hanan al-Shaykh has attracted an ever larger following for her dazzling tales of contemporary Arab women. In these seventeen short stories--eleven of which are appearing in English for the first time--al-Shaykh expands her horizons beyond the boundaries of Lebanon, taking us throughout the Middle East, to Africa, and finally to London. Stylistically diverse, her stories are often about the shifting and ambiguous power relationships between different cultures--as well as between men and women. Often compared to both Margaret Atwood and Margaret Drabble, Hanan al-Shaykh is "a gifted and courageous writer" (Middle Eastern International).

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In the seventeen short stories that comprise I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops, al-Shaykh limns in evocative prose the shifting and ambiguous power relationships that shape the landscape of the modern Arab world. Al-Shaykh's characters find themselves at the intersection of tradition and encroaching modernity, of East and West, of the innocence of childhood and the realities of adult life, of the everyday and the fantastical. In these stories, a woman feigns insanity to escape from an empty marriage, only to have her plans backfire; a young Danish missionary finds herself slowly and inexorably drawn into the world of the Yemeni village where she has been sent to work; a woman's lighthearted attempt to contact the world of the dead turns serious when she encounters the spirit of her late husband.

About the Author:

Hanan al-Shaykh, an award-winning journalist, novelist, and playwright, is the author of the short story collection I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops; the novels One Thousand and One Nights, The Story of Zahra, Women of Sand and Myrrh, Beirut Blues, and Only in London; and a memoir about her mother, The Locust and the Bird. She was raised in Beirut, educated in Cairo, and lives in London.

About this edition

• Publisher: Anchor
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0385491271
• ISBN 13: 9780385491273
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288