Basrayatha: Portrait of a City: A Modern Arabic Novel (Modern Arabic Literature) [Hardcover]

Mohammed Khudayyir (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 9774160649 | ISBN-13: 978-9774160646 | Publication Date: May 15, 2007 | Edition: First Edition

Basrayatha is a literary tribute by author Mohammed Khudayyir to the city of his birth, Basra, on the Shatt al-Arab waterway in southern Iraq. Just as a city's inhabitants differ from outsiders through their knowledge of its streets as well as its stories, so Khudayyir distinguishes between the real city of Basra and Basrayatha, the imagined city he has created through stories, experiences, folklore, and insights. By turns a memoir, a travelogue, a love letter, and a meditation, Basrayatha summons up images of a city long gone. In loving detail, Khudayyir recounts his discovery of his city as a child, as well as past communal banquets, the public baths, the delights of the Muslim day of rest, the city's flea markets and those who frequent them, a country bumpkin's big day in the city, Hollywood films at the local cinema, daily life during the Iran-Iraq War, and the canals and rivers around Basra. Above all, however, the book illuminates the role of the storyteller in creating the cities we inhabit - as Khudayyir himself has done with Basrayatha. Evoking the literary modernism of authors like Calvino and Borges, and tinged with nostalgia for a city now disappeared, Basrayatha is a masterful tribute to the power of memory and imagination.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

William Maynard Hutchins teaches at Appalachian State University, is the principal translator of Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy (AUC Press, 1989-1992), and has most recently translated Ibrahim al-Koni's Anubis (AUC Press, 2005). Muhammad Khudayyir was born in Basra, Iraq, where he still lives. He is the author of several collections of short stories. He was awarded the Oweiss prize in 2004.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: American University in Cairo Press; First Edition edition (May 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9774160649
• ISBN-13: 978-9774160646
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,016,133 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)