PUBLISHER / EDITOR Margaret Obank ASSISTANT EDITOR Samuel Shimon COVER ARTIST Mehdi Qotbi CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Khaled Mattawa Saadi Youssef Anton Shammas Peter Clark Fadhil al-Azzawi Sinan Antoon Paul Starkey Issa J Boullata Mona Zaki CONSULTING EDITORS Etel Adnan Roger Allen Mohammed Bennis Gamal el-Ghitani Marilyn Hacker Erdmute Heller Herbert Mason Yasir Suleiman Susannah Tarbush Saif al-Rahbi EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Shela Sheikh, Zuzana Kratka Deborah Horton LAYOUT: Banipal Publishing

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Tel: +44 (0)20 8568 9747 Fax: +44 (0)20 8568 8509 editorial email: editor@banipal.co.uk subscriptions: subscribe@banipal.co.uk website: www.banipal.co.uk PRINTED BY Short Run Press Ltd Bittern Road, Sowton Ind. Est. EXETER EX2 7LW ISSN: 1461-5363 Photographs not accredited have been donated, photographers unknown All material © Banipal, authors, translators and artists. All rights reserved. Contact the publisher for permission to reproduce any of the material published here.

Supporting Patron – Thani al-Suwaidi

CONTENTS No 31, Spring 2008

2 EDITORIAL 3 Paul Chaoul – Excerpt from the play TheVisitor 15 Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin – A short story The Music of Bones 18 Osama Dinassouri – Excerpt from My Decrepit Dog, My Darling Dog 26 TRIBUTE to Suhail Idriss, founder Dar Al-Adab publishing house 27 FEATURE ON CONTEMPORARY SYRIAN LITERATURE 28 Khaled Khalifa – Excerpt from the novel In Praise of Hatred 37 Mohammad al-Maghut – Five Poems 43 Dima Wannous – A short story Sahar 46 Lukman Derky – Sixteen Poems 50 Lina Tibi – Eight Poems 56 Khalil Suwailih – Excerpt from the novel Zuhur, Sarah and Nariman 63 Saleh Diab – Six Poems 68 Zakaria Tamer – Stories from his new collection Breaking Knees 76 Jackleen Salam – Two Poems 80 Nihad Sirees – A short story Thinking of Naima 85 Nazih Abu Afach – Seven Poems 88 Rima Buaini – Two Poems 90 Abed Ismael – Selected poems fromVoices 94 Manhal Sarraj – A short story For the First Time 98 Rasha Omran – Two Poems 102 Monzer Masri – Three Poems 107 Hala Mohammad – Poems from As if I’m knockiong on my door 112 Rafik Schami – Excerpt from the novel The Dark Side of Love

ATRAVELLING TALE 130 Khalil al-Neimi – Rome in the Ran 137 TRIBUTE to Fuad al-Takarli, Iraqi author

BOOK REVIEWS 138 Bassam K Frangieh Embers and Ashes by Hisham Sharabi 140 Tarek el-Ariss Origin by Diane Abu-Jaber 142 Peter Clark Dissident Syria by miriam cooke 144 Zuzana Kratka Wolves of the Crescent Moon Yousef al-Mohaimeed 146 Judith Kazantzis Outcast by Shimon Ballas 150 Susannah Tarbush Inside the Night by Ibrahim Nasrallah 152 Margaret Obank Naguib Mahfouz by Rasheed el-Enany 152 BOOKS RECEIVED

EVENTS 155 London: Arabia Books launch 156 Abu Dhabi: International Prize for Arabic Fiction Award 158 London: MEDAF seminar 159 CONTRIBUTORS AND TRANSLATORS

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Banipal takes its name from Ashurbanipal, last great king of Assyria and patron of the arts, whose outstanding achievement was to assemble in Nineveh, from all over his empire, the first systematically organised library in the ancient Middle East. The thousands of clay tablets of Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian writings included the famous Mesopotamian epics of the Creation, the Flood, and Gilgamesh, many folk tales, fables, proverbs, prayers and omen texts. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica

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