DO YOU RUN A BOOK CLUB OR TEACH TRANSLATION?Consider inviting me to your class to read from Bothayna Al-Essa's Lost in Mecca and to talk about my experience translating the novel from Arabic into English.
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2024 DarArab UK
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LOST IN MECCAخرائط التيه
by Bothayna Al-Essa tr. Nada Faris SYNOPSIS
When a seven-year-old Kuwaiti boy goes missing during the Hajj pilgrimage, his loss introduces his parents to a darker side of Mecca. |
REVIEWS
"Faris’s translation manages to capture Al-Essa’s poetic style and preserve the urgency of the narrative, making this thought-provoking work both devastating and impactful."
-- The Judges, Saif Ghobash Banipal's Translation Award
-- The Judges, Saif Ghobash Banipal's Translation Award
"Lost in Mecca is Nada Faris’s debut translation, and her work is to be admired. The English captures the rhythms of al-Essa’s fast-paced, flash-like chapters and briskly interwoven dialogues that lend to the novel’s borderless mood—one that can easily lead a reader astray. Faris also brilliantly preserves the sonic landscape of the original, and highlights its prominent style by effectively slipping rhyme and half-rhyme into the English without being too flashy."
-- Ibrahim Fawzy, Asymptote
-- Ibrahim Fawzy, Asymptote
"Nada Faris’s translation captures every nuance of Al-Essa’s prose, enabling English readers to experience the visceral, haunting depth of this story."
-- Nasser Al Badri, Director, DarArab for Publishing and Translation
-- Nasser Al Badri, Director, DarArab for Publishing and Translation
"This is a difficult and gut-wrenching read but an important contribution to Kuwaiti literature in English. It is an exploration of the human condition and the universality of pain, loss, and love. Characters are multifaceted, and it is a complex examination of morality, victimization, and privilege."
-- Shahd Al-Shammari, World Literature Today
-- Shahd Al-Shammari, World Literature Today
In the Press
- ArabLit, "Nada Faris on Why She Stopped Avoiding Translation & Bringing Bothayna Al-Essa’s ‘Lost in Mecca’ into English"
- Asymptote, "‘Lost and Found in Maps of Wandering’: A Review of Bothayna Al-Essa’s Lost in Mecca"
- World Literature Today,"75 Notable Translations of 2024"
- World Literature Today, Dr. Shahd Al-Shammari's Review of Lost in Mecca by Bothayna Al-Essa
- Banipal, The 2024 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation Shortlist
- Al-Jarida, "ندى فارس: جذبني الجانب الإبداعي لخوض عالم الترجمة"
Events
- التيه في خرائط الترجمة : A Discussion with the Author and Translator of Lost in Mecca -- Eman Assad interviewing both writer and translator at Tawkween Bookstore, Kuwait, May 18, 2024
- Poetics of Translation: A First Look at Lost in Mecca -- Sarah Al-Obeid interviewing Nada Faris at the Contemporary Art Platform (CAP) Kuwait -- Oct 11, 2023.