The Locust and the Bird
My Mother's Story
1st Edition
Published on 5. April 2010
320 pages
978-1-4088-1087-3 (ISBN)
Description
Kamila is nine years old when she is taken from the poverty of her childhood village in southern Lebanon to Beirut. She has never learned to read or write though she longs to go to school. Stories, poetry and film are her passion - and a beautiful boy called Muhammad. They fall in love before Kamila is forced into an arranged marriage, despite her tears and screams. She is only fourteen years old. On her wedding night her first daughter is conceived; four years later, Hanan is born. Kamila and Muhammad continue to see each other in secret, risking their lives. It is eight years before Kamila can bring herself to divorce her husband, as to do so means leaving her daughters behind. Beautifully evoking the dusty streets of Beirut and life in Lebanon, this is a heartbreaking memoir of an extraordinary woman.
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN-13
978-1-4088-1087-3 (9781408810873)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
04/2010
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
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06/2009
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
€21.90
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Person
Hanan al-Shaykh is one of the contemporary Arab world's most acclaimed writers. She was born in Lebanon and brought up in Beirut, before going to Cairo to receive her education. She was a successful journalist in Cairo and in Beirut, then later lived in the Arabian Gulf, before moving to London. She is the author of the collection I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops and her novels include The Story of Zahra, Women of Sand and Myrrh, Beirut Blues and, most recently, Only in London, which was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. She lives in London.
Content
- Cover
- Praise for The Locust and the Bird
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Quotation
- Contents
- Dramatis Personae
- Hanan
- Prologue
- Kamila
- 1932: Ever Since I can Remembe
- Door of Secrets
- 1934: Beirut
- Even Pigeons Go to School
- The White Rose
- Stone-Bearing Donkeys
- 'You are Hereby My Witness'
- A Single Drop of Blood
- Escape into a Trap
- How I Came to be Married to Mr Watch-out-or-else
- Snake Pit
- Fatima
- Nadia's Nightclub
- 'Good God ... You could Sew a Dress for a Flea'
- The Gallant of the Night
- Clang, Clang, Clang . Gotcha, Gotcha, Gotcha!
- Love's First Signs
- 'You Cry so you can go to the Cinema, and then you Come Home Crying!'
- The Camel Howdah
- How I Came to Call my Second Baby Hanan
- The Lady and Ibrahim
- The Walnut Tree Knows Everything
- Four Years or Four Seconds
- 'You Lead Her this Way and that ... Do You Expect Me to Resole her Shoes Every Day?'
- His Indifference Sucks up my Desires
- His Desires Suck up my very Blood
- Silk Valley
- There's No More Money in My Husband's Drawer
- 'Forgive me' - 'God is the Forgiver'
- 'Forgive me' - 'I have Forgiven you'
- The Persian Carpet
- 'I'm a Member of the Family Suffering this Misfortune'
- Monkey Shit
- My Third Daughter Ahlam
- My First Son Toufic
- Ra's al-Naqurah
- Two Muhammads
- The 1958 Revolution Happened Because of Me
- Muhammad Kamal
- 'You Must Have the Wrong House'
- 'I am Abu al-Hinn, the Tiniest of Birds. What's the Point of Shooting me?'
- Muhammad Betrays Me
- Soraya's Complaint
- The Money in your Pocket is more Beautiful than your Heart's Desire
- 'Baba's Here, Baba's Here!'
- The Widows' Club
- The Marriage Season
- 1975
- Battuta's Daughter
- The War has Ended
- 'One Stone Takes You Away, Another Brings You Back'
- Hanan
- 'It's not that, is it?'
- Life's Journey
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on the Author
- Also Available by Hanan al-Shaykh
- eCopyright
