Granada: A Novel (Middle East Literature in Translation) [Hardcover]

Radwa Ashour (Author), William Granara (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Prior to the fifteenth century, Granada, Spain, was a Muslim community. When the Castilians conquered the area, they brought with them the Inquisition. Muslim culture and literature were banned, and inhabitants were forced to convert. This epic follows the fortunes of the Muslim family of Abu Jaafar, a well-respected leader and book printer. His two apprentices and the children of his deceased biological son make up the heart of the novel. Granada's history is likely to be unfamiliar to American audiences, and this fact, coupled with the explanatory footnotes, may, at first, be a little off-putting. However, once readers acclimate to the gentle rhythms of the story, they may well find it to be a page-turner. Characters such as the headstrong granddaughter, Saleema, will be familiar to anyone who enjoys romances. Occasionally, phrases such as "terrorist" and "Muslim Freedom Fighter" seem anachronistic and thrown in for their modern-day implications, rather than for the sake of the story. For the most part, though, the language is rich and evocative, and the characters are engaging. Marta Segal
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 229 pages
• Publisher: Syracuse Univ Pr (Sd); 1 edition (November 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815607652
• ISBN-13: 978-0815607656
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #860,404 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stunning Translation, July 28, 2004

By 

begonia (Moscow, Russia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Granada: A Novel (Middle East Literature in Translation) (Hardcover)

This book was brought to my attention as a student of translation. I think that it is indeed a remarkable novel for a variety of reasons. Although a specialist on the history of this era might not be satisfied with the quantity of historical detail presented, I did not feel like the story itself was sacrificed for the purpose of allegory. The key aspects of the story were the act of presenting a story, in itself -- the language was sumptuous and the arabic translation was breathtaking. Descriptions were fabulously drawn. My impression of the novel was that it gently creates an allegory, while more importantly reiterating that people who live in an insular culture are always slow to change. I thought this book might be well received by Americans, who generally are not aware that the rest of the world does not move as quickly as they do, and who are not prepared to deal with too much character depth or historical detail.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars not a historical novel!, May 14, 2004

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cristina enaudi (amherst, nh) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Granada: A Novel (Middle East Literature in Translation) (Hardcover)

I just finished this book for a class on modern arab lit that I absolutely loved. This book is meant as an alegorical statement of the experience of loss and defeat by "outsiders" so dominant in Arab consciousness, so it shouldn't really be read as a historical novel. But there is something disappointing about the lack of nuance in character development and depth in the story it tells (in fact, it reads a bit like an adolescent novel). It's too bad, because Ashour is a lyrical writer and the subject is a serious one. If you are looking for some serious fiction by women writers from the Arab world, I strongly recommend Huda Barakat and Sahar Khalifeh (Wild Thorns is a classic about why people in Palestine resort to violence even when they abhor it in principle).

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A magnificent passionate journey through history, August 8, 2010

By 

Nile daughter - See all my reviews

This review is from: Granada: A Novel (Middle East Literature in Translation) (Hardcover)

This is a melancholic master piece about Fanaticism and Oppression(which unfortunately is a feature that involves all kinds of human's history) !

The novel's events take place in Al-Andalus after 1492 - after the fall of Muslim power in Granada , it expresses bitterly and smoothly the last vanishing chapter of the Arabic - Muslim cultural and the social identity of societies used to live in the Iberian Peninsula for more than 700 years . It is a unique piece ; full of detailed descriptions of places , traditions , and from anther side emotions , meditations & metaphors .

The novel was written in a very rich language and deserves to be read.

For anyone who would like to really get involved with this historical novel I recommend to also read the historical analytical book (A History of Islamic Spain) by William Montgomery Watt .

N.B
The novel in Arabic is a trilogy , I think this is only the 1st part .