作品情報
砂漠のオアシスを舞台に、伝統と近代化の狭間を描く長編。
砂漠のオアシスを象徴的舞台に、伝統と近代化の狭間で揺れる人々の運命を描く長編。家族や共同体の絆、喪失と再生が静謐な筆致で綴られ、地域社会の歴史的変動が個々人の生活に及ぼす影響を丁寧に掘り下げる作品。
書籍情報
- 出版社
- Sceptre
- 発売日
- 2009-10-15
- ページ数
- 320ページ
- 言語
- 英語
- サイズ
- 14.4 x 22.2 x 2.8 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780340924877
- ISBN-10
- 034092487X
- 価格
- 4576 JPY
- カテゴリ
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Literary
When Mahmoud Abd El Zahir is sent to govern the remote Egyptian oasis of Siwa in the late 1890s, he knows the danger he faces -- two of his predecessors were murdered. But having been accused of disloyalty to the current regime and its British overlords, he has little choice. Rather than stay behind in Cairo, his Irish wife Catherine insists on going too, hoping to reinvigorate their relationship. Once at Siwa, Mahmoud finds himself not only fiercely resented but caught between two warring factions, while Catherine, with her Western ways and seemingly avaricious interest in the local archaeological sites, succeeds in alienating the entire community -- all except for a beautiful young woman, herself an outcast, whose attempt at friendship spells disaster. In this fascinating novel, Bahaa Taher weaves together several voices to capture a society at war with itself and a marriage in trouble. At once a complex tale of love and an exploration of power, occupation and rebellion, SUNSET OASIS tells of people struggling to free themselves from the grip of the past. It is a striking, haunting work by one of the Arab world's most celebrated writers.
Bahaa Taher was born in 1935 in Cairo, Egypt. He was active in the country's left-wing literary circles of the 1960s and in the mid 1970s was prevented from publishing his work. After many years of exile in Switzerland, he has recently returned to Egypt. Now one of the most widely read novelists in the Arab world, Taher has received the State's Award of Merit in Literature, the highest honour the Egyptian establishment can confer on a writer. He is the author of four collections of short stories, several plays and works of non-fiction, and six novels. In 2008 he was awarded the inaugural International Prize for Arabic Fiction for SUNSET OASIS.
レビュー
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I came to read this book so that I can check the box of having read and Egyptian author and I enjoy it - My requirements of fiction reading are: Educate me but don’t give me homework assignments - this more than fits the bill!
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Speedy delivery, appropriate packaging and the book itself was excellent. Very elaborately written and translated.The story was so fascinating and catchy that I read the book in one single afternoon.
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I don't know if I like it but my mom is reading it
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Basically, my reason for buying Sunset Oasis because the story was set in the Oasis of Siwah which was visited by Alexander nearly two thousand five hundred years ago. The scene of the novel evolves at the end of the 19th century when Egypt is under British rule. The main figures are Mahmoud, who is appointed to replace the previously murdered District Commissioner at Siwah, and his Irish wife Catherine, who is very well versed in ancient languages and has a great interest in antiquities, particularly in Alexander the Great. The book gives a fascinating description of their trip through the desert from Cairo to Siwah during which they are caught in a sandstorm, not unlike Alexander’s experience. Their welcome in Siwah is hostile and as if that were not enough, the locals themselves are split between Easterners and Westerners causing friction and problems of their own. Bahaa Taher interestingly tells the story alternatively from the point of view of Mahmoud, that of Catherine, but also from that of the two main leaders Sheikh Yahya of the western clan and Sheikh Sabir of the eastern clan. There even is an entire chapter where Alexander the Great is giving his thoughts – not entirely without merit. As each person relates his own experiences and thoughts, we also get more information about what happened earlier in their lives and how they feel about it. It is striking to follow their “eastern” way of thinking and reacting (no wonder it collides with the British and in Mahmoud’s case with his Irish wife). This is all fiction and we should remember that this is a novel, but nonetheless, it makes good reading and gives an excellent insight into a period of time about which little is known otherwise and certainly not from such a remote location as Siwah, close to the Libyan border. It is quite fascinating to follow. An interesting chapter of Egypt’s history is being told here and for me, a not uninteresting approach to Alexander’s visit to the Oasis of Siwah.
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My girlfriend loved this, she said the book came with a personal note and a card from Egypt.
関連する文学賞
- 国際アラブ小説賞 第1回（2008年） ・受賞