Notice bibliographique
- Notice
Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Texte noté : sans médiation
Auteur(s) : Naṣr, Ḥasan (1937-....)
Titre(s) : Return to Dar al-Basha [Texte imprimé] : a novel / Hassan Nasr ; translated from the Arabic by William Hutchins
Traduction de : Dār al-bāšā
Traduction de : دار الباشا
Édition : 1st ed.
Publication : Syracuse (N.Y.) : Syracuse university press, cop. 2006
Description matérielle : xvi, 168 p. ; 21 cm
Collection : Middle East literature in translation
Lien à la collection : Middle East literature in translation
Note(s) : Translated from Arabic. - Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-168). - "Works by Hassan Nasr": p.
165-166
"A semi-autobiographical evocation of a Tunisian childhood during the days of nationalist
resistance against French colonial rule." "Return to Dar al-Basha by the contemporary
Tunisian author Hassan Nasr depicts the childhood of Murtada al-Shamikh and his return
forty years later to his home in the medina or old city of Tunis. After being taken
from his mother and raised in his father's home where he was physically abused and
emotionally marginalized, Murtada spends a life of anxiety wandering the world. His
return is prompted by a mysterious visit from one of his father's Sufi friends as
he roams the desert in Mauritania. Murtada retraces his steps through the medina to
his family's house in anticipation of a possible reunion with his troubled father,
vividly reliving sights, smells, and sounds from his childhood and evoking his childhood
initiation into Islamic mysticism as he experiences a personal journey of the spirit
across space and time." "Nasr succeeds in conjuring up a Tunisian boyhood not unlike
his own and brings to life in a poetic, sensual narrative the sounds, colors, and
life of Tunis some six decades ago. Murtada searches the streets of Tunis and his
memories for the decisive mistake he feels he must have made-that has left him a perpetual
wanderer until he undergoes a cathartic nightmare sequence that leaves him shaken.
Only then is he finally able to come to peace with his past and with himself. In William
M. Hutchins' translation, the novel serves as an evocation and tribute to the historic
city of Tunis the novel and meditates about the position of the past in a rapidly
modernizing society."--BOOK JACKET
Also issued online.
Autre(s) auteur(s) : Hutchins, William M. (1944-....). Traducteur
Identifiants, prix et caractéristiques : ISBN 0815608780 (hardcover) (alk. paper). - ISBN 9780815608783 (hardcover) (alk. paper)
Identifiant de la notice : ark:/12148/cb42322107v
Notice n° :
FRBNF42322107
(notice reprise d'un réservoir extérieur)
