I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops - Softcover

Hanan-al-shaykh

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747561311 ISBN 13: 9780747561316

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2002

Synopsis

At the intersection of tradition and modernity, East and West, childhood and adulthood, Hanan al-Shaykh's characters find their way through the shifting and ambiguous power relationships that shape the landscape of the modern Arab world. 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 stationed; and a woman's lighthearted attempt to contact the world of the dead turns serious when she encounters the spirit of her late husband. At once clever and evocative, I SWEEP THE SUN OFF ROOFTOPS is a collection of great insight, wit and poignancy, placing Hanan al-Shaykh among the foremost cosmopolitan writers of our time.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

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).

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 this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0747561311
• ISBN 13: 9780747561316
• Binding: Paperback