States of Passion: Nihad Sirees - Softcover

Sirees, Nihad

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782273476 ISBN 13: 9781782273479

Publisher: Pushkin Press, 2018

Synopsis

A mysterious tale-within-a-tale of family secrets by the most prominent Syrian author working today

The world is so strange. The strangest things are the stories you overhear.

When a hapless bureaucrat finds himself stranded in the countryside during a raging storm, he seeks refuge in a grand yet isolated mansion, inhabited by only an elderly gentleman and his unwelcoming servant.

The tale of family secrets he encounters while sheltering there begins with a faded photograph in yellowed newspaper, of a beautiful woman stepping off a train at Aleppo station many years ago. It transports him to Syria's golden age, to the heart of the mysterious unconventional banat al-ishreh - the infamous women who live, dance and play music together - and into a tangled web of forbidden love.

States of Passion is a beautifully spun, playful novel about what it means to live within a memory of the past - and about the many faces of a city that might have been.

About this title

Review

'Charming... the old sections set in the world of women are beautifully recreated... takes us back to Aleppo's golden age' -- Financial Times

'A captivating novel about memory and storytelling, highlighting the rich cultural history of Aleppo' -- Observer

'Beautifully controlled... This is an absorbing novel that celebrates the art of storytelling... a valuable snapshot of a vanished world' -- The National

'Engaging and believable, full and rounded... transparent and immersive, poignant' -- Asymptote Journal

'Vibrant... a nice thread of suspense laced with humour... It's a tale well spun, offering a glimpse of a culture about which I knew nothing' --A Life on Books (blog)

PRAISE FOR THE SILENCE AND THE ROAR

'Profound and topical ... a chilling portrait of a people whose lives are dominated by fear' -- Independent on Sunday

'An excellent novel ... while The Silence and the Roar is a slender novel, it is far from slight' -- The National

'A searing political allegory in the tradition of Orwell and Camus. Sirees's book would be unbearably bleak if it weren't so funny: its narrator's caustic irreverence is his rebellion against the tyrant's roar that would reduce him to silence' --Adam Shatz

'In this short, satiric fable, a formerly famous writer silenced by an authoritarian regime finds himself in a predicament where Kafka meets Catch-22' -- Kirkus

'With biting humor Nihad Sirees reveals the extraordinary injustices of ordinary life under the oppressive rule of the Leader. This richly rendered story illuminates the hard reality of the many Middle Eastern states in political transition today' -- Shahan Mufti

'This is a small dystopian treasure of Gogolian texture, nightmarish but light, self-referential but never pretentious. Eerie, banal, yet bearing the cold imprint of reality, Sirees's vision of tyranny, superlatively translated, is distinctive enough to be ranked with Orwell, Huxley or Marquez's' --Independent

About the Author

Nihad Sirees was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1950. After working as an engineer, he became an acclaimed novelist, playwright and screenwriter, but found himself under increasing surveillance and pressure from the Syrian government. In 2012, he left for Egypt and now lives and works in exile. Pushkin Press also publish The Silence and the Roar, banned in Syria, and his first novel to be published in English. He now lives in Berlin, Germany.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pushkin Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1782273476
• ISBN 13: 9781782273479
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256