BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Samar Yazbek and her translator Leri Price, who made it together to the National Book Award’s shortlist for the second time, with “Where the wind calls home” (Word Editions, 2023)!
“Planet of Clay” (also known as The blue pen, World Editions, 2021) was shortlisted to the National Book Award in 2021.
This news brings some much needed light in the dark days we have been experiencing.
The five other shortlisted foreign fiction titles are:
Bothayna Al-Essa, The Book Censor’s Library
Translated from the Arabic by Ranya Abdelrahman and Sawad Hussain
Restless Books
Linnea Axelsson, Ædnan
Translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel
Knopf / Penguin Random House
Fiston Mwanza Mujila, The Villain’s Dance
Translated from the French by Roland Glasser
Deep Vellum / Deep Vellum Publishing
Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, Taiwan Travelogue
Translated from the Mandarin Chinese by Lin King
Graywolf Press
The winner will be announced live in New York, on November 20th.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Ali, a 19-year-old soldier in the Syrian army, lies on the ground beneath a tree. He sees a body being lowered into a hole—is this his funeral? There was that sudden explosion, wasn’t there…. While trying to understand the extend of the damage, Ali works his way closer to the tree. His ultimate desire is to fly up to one of its branches, to safety. Throughrich vignettes of Ali’s memories, we uncover the hardships of his traditional Syrian Alawite village, but also the richness and beauty of its cultural and religious heritage. Yazbek here explores the secrets of the Alawite faith and its relationship to nature and the elements in a tight poetic novel dense with life and hope and love.
SOME PRESS
Asymptote – “Stunning”
Kirkus – “Evocative”
Publishers’ Weekly – “This slim novel packs a punch”
Daghens Nyether – “Samar Yazbek provides a magnetic voice”
Le Monde des Livres – “Samar Yazbek’s writing evokes Giono… her best novel to date”
Les Echos – “Poetic story told in a remarkable lyrical form”
Livres Hebdo – “Samar Yazbek does not tackle the conflict head-on… she subtly wraps it in a poetic universal tale”
Liberation – “This novel has everything from (Rimbaud‘s) “Sleeper in the Valley”… Yazbekrestores the humanity of those who up until now, are only seen as the brutal forces of the regime.”
L’Orient Litteraire – “In The Winds’ Abode, Samar Yazbek’s writing is exquisitely painful.”
SOLD RIGHTS
Orlando, The Netherlands (2022)
Stock, France (2023)
Ordfront, Sweden (2023)
Green Books, Malayalam, India (2023)
World Editions, USA (WEL, 2023)
Unionsverlag, Germany (2024)
News
October 2, 2024
