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Mama Hissa's Mice Saud Alsanousi

Mama Hissa's Mice By Saud Alsanousi

Mama Hissa's Mice by Saud Alsanousi


£8.59
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Mama Hissa's Mice Summary

Mama Hissa's Mice: A Novel by Saud Alsanousi

From the winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction comes an apocalyptic and caustically funny novel about the power of friendship in a war-torn world that NPR calls rich and resonant. Growing up together in the Surra section of central Kuwait, Katkout, Fahd, and Sadiq share neither ethnic origin nor religious denominationonly friendship and a rage against the unconscionable sectarian divide turning their lives into war-zone rubble. To lay bare the ugly truths, they form the protest group Fuadas Kids. Their righteous transgressions have made them targets of both Sunni and Shia extremists. Theyve also elicited the concern of Fahds grandmother, Mama Hissa, a story-spinning font of piety, wisdom, superstition, and dire warnings, who cautions them that should they anger God, the sky will surely fall. Then one day, after an attack on his neighborhood leaves him injured, Katkout regains consciousness. His friends are nowhere to be found. Inundated with memories of his past, Katkout begins a search for them in a world that has become unrecognizable but not forsaken. Snaking through decades of Kuwaiti history well into a cataclysmic twenty-first century, Mama Hissas Mice is a harrowing, emotional, and caustic novel of rebellion. It also speaks to the universal struggle of finding ones identity and a reason to go on, even after the sky has fallen.

Mama Hissa's Mice Reviews

It may be tough to read complex novels in these days of social media platforms and fast food fiction, but Mama Hissas Mice by Saud Al-Sanousi, translated by Sawad Hussain, is worth your timeThe novel is intermittently sarcastically comic and harrowingly tragic. Interspersing past and present, the author shows how the every day, every action reverberates into the future. Thus, this book is both a coming of age novel and a contemporary look at the ongoing violence in the Middle East and Persian Gulf StatesThis novel should be used in classrooms to educate students about what got the world to this place. The novel has a place on the general readers bookshelf because of lovable Katkout and his desire to do the right thing despite every reason to do the contrary. New York Journal of Books Mama Hissas Mice is a deeply emotive novel set in a time and place where dangers abound and nothing is certain any more. Saud Alsanousi has created a fine addition to Middle Eastern literature. Authorlink Alsanousi peppers a grim historical narrative of Kuwait with generous doses of warmth doled out by the lively Mama Hissa, Katkouts grandmotherA cast of colorful characters winningly delivers the sights and smells of KuwaitYAs will appreciate the deep bonds of friendship among Katkout, Fahd, and Sadiq as they grow up in each others homes. Booklist Translator Sawad Hussain has succeeded in bringing this beautiful, affecting novel to an English-reading audience and has captured clearly the emotional, political, and aesthetic concerns preoccupying the book. National Public Radio Mama Hissas Mice is a rich and resonant book that asks more questions than it (or anyone) can answer: What do storiesof past grudges, of present loves, of friendship despite historical differencesmean? How do they shape our realities? How much power do we have to change these stories? At times bleak and at others upliftingthe arrival of a young girl who believes in Fuadas Kids mission toward the end of the novel feels like a symbol of hope and future possibilityAlsanousis book, reflective of his own particular country, culture and sociopolitical context, can serve as both window and mirror to Western readers. National Public Radio Mama Hissas Mice by author Saud Alsanousi is a deftly crafted and inherently fascinating novel that is unreservedly recommended for both community and academic library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections. Midwest Book Review

About Saud Alsanousi

Saud Alsanousi is a Kuwaiti novelist and journalist born in 1981. He won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction for The Bamboo Stalk in 2013, and Mama Hissas Mice was nominated for the 2016/17 Sheikh Zayed Book Award. His first novel, The Prisoner of Mirrors, was published in 2010 and won the fourth Laila al-Othman Prize, a prestigious award for novels and short stories by young writers. He also won first prize for his story The Bonsai and the Old Man in the July 2011 Stories on the Air competition organized by Al-Arabi magazine with BBC Arabic. In October 2016, the Gulf Cooperation Council presented Alsanousi with the Contribution to Literature Award in Riyadh. His work has appeared in a number of Kuwaiti publications, including Al-Watan newspaper and Al-Arabi, Al-Kuwait, and Al-Abwab magazines. He currently writes for Al-Qabas newspaper.

Additional information

NGR9781542042161
9781542042161
154204216X
Mama Hissa's Mice: A Novel by Saud Alsanousi
New
Paperback
Amazon Publishing
2019-11-12
400
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a new book - be the first to read this copy. With untouched pages and a perfect binding, your brand new copy is ready to be opened for the first time

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