Sonallah Ibrahim: Rebel with a Pen

by Paul Starkey

This volume is designed as an introduction to the contemporary Egyptian author Sonallah Ibrahim, one of the most important Arabic novelists of the modern era, with an unrivalled reputation for independence and integrity among contemporary Egyptian writers. The first study in any language devoted exclusively to Sonallah Ibrahim, the volume discusses each of the author’s novels individually, beginning with the seminal Tilka al-ra’iha [That Smell] (1966) and ending with al-Jalid [Ice] (2011). Each work is discussed individually in its literary, social, historical and political context. The volume traces the evolution of Sonallah Ibrahim’s work in terms both of their themes and of their literary technique, and concludes with an attempt at an overall evaluation of the author’s contribution to the contemporary Egyptian novel. Paul Starkey’s account shows how innovative and stylistically rich the Arabic novel has become over a period of some fifty years, beyond the better-known work of writers such as Naguib Mahfouz and Yusuf Idris. As such, the volume will serve as an introduction not only to the individual author but also to the development of Egyptian (and, more generally, Arabic) literature over the last half century.

248 pages, Hardcover

Published June 17, 2016

About the author

Paul Starkey is a British scholar and translator of Arabic literature.He received his doctorate from Oxford University; the subject of his dissertation was the works of the Egyptian writer Tawfiq Hakim. He is currently the head of the Arabic department at the University of Durham. He is also co-director of the Centre for Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW), a collaborative project by the Universities of Edinburgh, Durham and Manchester.

Starkey is the author of Modern Arabic Literature (2006), a survey of the field. He has also edited a number of books, contributed book chapters, and written essays, scholarly articles and monographs. He is a specialist on the Sixties Generation of Egyptian writers, in particular Sonallah Ibrahim and Edwar al-Kharrat.

Starkey has translated several contemporary Arabic novels, including works by Edwar al-Kharrat and Mansoura Ez-Eldin. His translations have been published in Banipal magazine. He has also served on the judging panel of the Arabic Booker Prize.