Leg over Leg
by Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq and Humphrey Davies (translator)
Buy on AmazonI learnt to forget what my teachers had taught me! We’re always taught that Arabic fiction in the 19th century isn’t worth a read and is incredibly boring. Well, I can swear to you that this incredible 1,900 page novel is not! It’s the craziest book I’ve read. A mix of epic novel, travelogue, political encyclopaedia, autobiography and… Arabic dictionary. It’s ironic, clever, always funny, it’s unique. Such a book teaches you that everything is possible if you are totally free, if you can free your mind from clichés and existing images of what a novel should be. I hope someday to be able to write something this impressive, with such a broad scope.
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"I learnt to forget what my teachers had taught me! We’re always taught that Arabic fiction in the 19th century isn’t worth a read and is incredibly boring. Well, I can swear to you that this incredible 1,900 page novel is not! It’s the craziest book I’ve read. A mix of epic novel, travelogue, political encyclopaedia, autobiography and… Arabic dictionary. It’s ironic, clever, always funny, it’s unique. Such a book teaches you that everything is possible if you are totally free, if you can free your mind from clichés and existing images of what a novel should be. I hope someday to be able to write something this impressive, with such a broad scope."
The ‘Orient’ and Orientalism · fivebooks.com