A necessary new edition of the classic novel from the greatets Palestinian novelist, and one of the Arab world's most enduringly influential literary and political figures
First published in 1962, Men in the Sun is both a classic of Arab literature, and of what Kanafani himself would term 'resistance literature'.
Three Palestinian men embark on a brutal and treacherous odyssey across the Iraqi desert to Kuwait, not for liberation but material betterment. Their driver, a jaded, fat, former freedom fighter, living with his own compromises and contradictions, makes for a garrulous if cavalier companion. Both the indifferent brutality of border bureaucracy and the blank aggression of the sun see that things grow steadily more stark.
The author's ardent politics are apparent throughout, but the novel's characters are their own beings: ambivalent, conflicted creatures of context. While breezily conversational, with disarming, dreamy strokes of lyricism, this short novel delivers a shuddering and grounding dose of true horror.
As well as the titular novella, the book features six short stories, including the timelessly resonant 'Letter From Gaza' , Kanafani's first published work, written when he twenty, and the essential 'The Land of Sad Oranges'.
The great Palestinian writer John Berger
Ghassan Kanafani was born in Palestine in 1936, and lived in exile, in Kuwait and then Lebanon, from 1948 when his family were displaced during the Nakba.
He was a prolific writer of novels, short stories, literary criticism and journalism. He was a member of the leadership of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). His literary work combines political urgency with an innovative literary style and powerful storytelling., and he remains one of the most important figures in the history of Arab literature.
He died in 1972 at the age of 36-assassinated, along with his teenaged niece, in a car bombing carried out by Mossad in Beirut.
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