2024 DarArab UK 

LOST IN MECCA

خرائط 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.

Get the book

REVIEWS

"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

DO YOU 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. 
​

• Lost in Mecca is a literary crime thriller set in the Middle East, offering both an engaging narrative and a thought-provoking text.
• The Arabic novel, published in 2015, has garnered 12,000 ratings and 3,000 reviews on Goodreads, with an overall rating of 4.12 stars.
• Of these ratings, at least 5,000 are a perfect 5 stars.

For my Events Kit, CV, or Resume, please visit the booking page.

Invite Me

Download this Info Page to share with your school administration. ​

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"

Events

• 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.