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Saraya, the Ogre's Daughter: A Palestinian Fairy Tale
Fiction. Middle Eastern Studies. Translated from the Arabic by Peter Theroux. This hypnotically lyrical last novel by the leading Palestinian prose writer of the twentieth century is equal parts allegory, folk tale, memoir, political commentary, and ode to a ruined landscape. Rendered for the first time ever in English by one of the leading translators of contemporary Arabic literature, it is a haunting tour de force-essential reading for anyone interested in the imaginative life of the Middle East. "In Arabic, Habiby has had no precursors and has had no successors.... Acknowledging his debt to Voltaire and Swift, he has proven inimitable." -Middle East Magazine.
- GenresFictionMiddle East
210 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
12 people are currently reading
359 people want to read
About the author
Emile Habiby
14 books64 followersAlso Emile Habibi
(Arabic: إميل حبيبي)
Habibi (Habiby) was an Palestinian Christian writer and politician .
He was born in today's Israel, which at that time was part of the British Mandate of Palestine. Born in to a Protestant Palestinian Arab family (his family had originally been Arab Orthodox but converted to Protestantism due to disputes within the Orthodox church) In his early life he worked on an oil refinery and later was a radio announcer. Under the Mandate he became one of the leaders of the Palestine communist party. When the 1948 Arab-Israeli War began in 1948 he stayed in Haifa while many others chose or were forced to leave the country. As a result he was granted Israeli citizenship. After the war he helped to create The Israeli communist party and established the Israeli communist paper Al-Ittihad. He stayed in Haifa his whole life. His gravestone reads (on Habibi's own request): "Emile Habibi - Remained in Haifa."
Habibi received the Al-Quds Prize from the PLO. Two years later (in 1992) he received the Israel Prize for Arabic literature. His willingness to accept both reflected his belief in coexistence. Though after accepting the Israel Prize a debate set off among the Arabic intellectual community. Habibi was accused of legitimating the Israel anti-Arabic policy. Habibi replied to the accusations: "A dialogue of prizes is better than a dialogue of stones and bullets," he said. "It is indirect recognition of the Arabs in Israel as a nation. This is recognition of a national culture. It will help the Arab population in its struggle to strike roots in the land and win equal rights .
(Arabic: إميل حبيبي)
Habibi (Habiby) was an Palestinian Christian writer and politician .
He was born in today's Israel, which at that time was part of the British Mandate of Palestine. Born in to a Protestant Palestinian Arab family (his family had originally been Arab Orthodox but converted to Protestantism due to disputes within the Orthodox church) In his early life he worked on an oil refinery and later was a radio announcer. Under the Mandate he became one of the leaders of the Palestine communist party. When the 1948 Arab-Israeli War began in 1948 he stayed in Haifa while many others chose or were forced to leave the country. As a result he was granted Israeli citizenship. After the war he helped to create The Israeli communist party and established the Israeli communist paper Al-Ittihad. He stayed in Haifa his whole life. His gravestone reads (on Habibi's own request): "Emile Habibi - Remained in Haifa."
Habibi received the Al-Quds Prize from the PLO. Two years later (in 1992) he received the Israel Prize for Arabic literature. His willingness to accept both reflected his belief in coexistence. Though after accepting the Israel Prize a debate set off among the Arabic intellectual community. Habibi was accused of legitimating the Israel anti-Arabic policy. Habibi replied to the accusations: "A dialogue of prizes is better than a dialogue of stones and bullets," he said. "It is indirect recognition of the Arabs in Israel as a nation. This is recognition of a national culture. It will help the Arab population in its struggle to strike roots in the land and win equal rights .
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 4, 2017
رواية - سماها اميل حبيبي خرافية - تتركك وانت تتلمظ طعم كلماتها في فمك. سبيكة لغوية باهرة. اظافر منشوبة في صخور الكرمل وبين حجارة شواطئ فلسطين. عمل سردي يشبه قصيدة طويلة. يشبه مظلة يمسك بها إميل وهو يسقط خشية ان يجيء سقوطه مثل سقوط الطير اصابته رصاصة الصياد في مقتل. بطاقة هوية يرفعها الفلسطيني في وجه الكارثة التي حلت به. نداء متواصل على سرايا وبحث محموم عنها. تلك الجميلة التي اختطفها الغول. خيالات جامحة لا تكاد تجد سرايا حتى تفقدها ولا تكاد تميز الغول حتى تجهله. تحتاج لأكثر من قراءة ويحتاج الفلسطيني لها كثيرا. والعربي سيجد فيها معنى ان تصبح اللغة العتيقة لحافا يحتبئ تحته الفلسطيني المهدد في عربيته من برد المنفى داخل الوطن. رؤى متوالية هذه الرواية. مجموعة من الرؤى التاريخية والاسطورية. وسيرة ذاتية تشبه خيطا رقيقا يجمع لآلئ متنوعة من الطفولة حتى الشيخوخة. المهم ان سرايا ليست الا لعبد الله الفلسطيني. والعم إبراهيم الاسطوري لم يعهد بعصاه الا لاخي عبد الله. والغزاة لا عزاء لهم الا بالقتل والتشريد. وتظل رموز البلاد لاهل البلاد. ويوما ما سيجد عبد الله سرايا ويصعد اليها على جدائلها ويقتل الغول.
May 30, 2017
ممتعة. وبحاجة لقراءة ثانية وثالثة ورابعة لتفهم
October 31, 2011
Simply loved it...
Highly recommended
Highly recommended
December 11, 2020
The last day of November, I read the first and most famous of Habiby's seven novels, The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist, written in 1974. Saraya, the Ogre's Daughter was his last novel, written in 1991. As far as I know, they are the only ones that have been translated into English. While the first novel had some strange elements, it was relatively straightforward compared to Saraya. The book is told as a conversation between two friends, the overall narrator who is more or less Habiby (he mentions writing the Pessoptimist book) and Abdallah, the protagonist, who is recounting his "tale". Most of the chapters begin with "HE SAID:". The "tale" begins near the end, with Saraya, or a vision of Saraya, appearing to Abdallah on a boulder in the sea. The story then keeps returning to various times in his life, but not in a straight chronological order, and the various episodes are not all consistent; some have magical aspects or may be dreams or imagined events.
Most people are familiar with the Arab fairy tale of Saraya the Ogre's Daughter, although not in that form; the Western version has a witch-mother rather than an ogre-father, and calls the girl Rapunzel. Right, the one with the long hair who got tangled up with Disney. In the Arab version, she is found not by a wandering knight but by her cousin, the preferred husband in traditional Arabic and other traditional cultures. Despite the subtitle, this novel does not tell the fairy tale of Saraya, or even give a modern retelling, although there are allusions to it throughout the book. Abdallah tells us, or at least implies, at various points that his Saraya (at one point he says he gave her that name, at another that it was her real name) may have been his cousin, the daughter of his strange uncle Ibrahim and his Coptic wife Maria (who might also have been Jewish and named Miriam), although he also says that daughter died as a baby; or a foundling adopted by his uncle, or a gypsy girl, or something more supernatural (he emphasizes several times that "his" Saraya is "flesh-and-blood", but also seems to assume that she hasn't aged in half a century.) There are also references back to the first novel; the narrator says "you remember in my novel the Pessoptimist Said's uncle, also named Said (this translator gives the name as Said rather than Saeed), found a vault with a treasure" and Abdallah says, "that really happened, it was found by my uncle Ibrahim." I assume in both books it has some symbolic meaning.
Apparently (you can't be sure of anything Abdallah says) Uncle Ibrahim disappeared for the last time taking Saraya with him (here Abdallah refers to him as "the ogre"), and Abdallah has always felt guilty for "forgetting" her, while he lived in the diaspora, until he finally comes back to try to find her and his past, in what he calls his "Via Dolorosa". (The book has many Christian allusions; although Abdallah is presumably Moslem, Habiby was raised Christian, and as he says the Zionists made no distinction. Note that Edward Said (the Palestinian activist and Columbia professor, not the Pessoptimist) was also from a Christian family.) As in the first novel (and presumably the other five) the real point is to describe the plight of the Palestinians driven out of Palestine or relegated to second-class status in Israel, without making that the obvious subject of the story.
Most people are familiar with the Arab fairy tale of Saraya the Ogre's Daughter, although not in that form; the Western version has a witch-mother rather than an ogre-father, and calls the girl Rapunzel. Right, the one with the long hair who got tangled up with Disney. In the Arab version, she is found not by a wandering knight but by her cousin, the preferred husband in traditional Arabic and other traditional cultures. Despite the subtitle, this novel does not tell the fairy tale of Saraya, or even give a modern retelling, although there are allusions to it throughout the book. Abdallah tells us, or at least implies, at various points that his Saraya (at one point he says he gave her that name, at another that it was her real name) may have been his cousin, the daughter of his strange uncle Ibrahim and his Coptic wife Maria (who might also have been Jewish and named Miriam), although he also says that daughter died as a baby; or a foundling adopted by his uncle, or a gypsy girl, or something more supernatural (he emphasizes several times that "his" Saraya is "flesh-and-blood", but also seems to assume that she hasn't aged in half a century.) There are also references back to the first novel; the narrator says "you remember in my novel the Pessoptimist Said's uncle, also named Said (this translator gives the name as Said rather than Saeed), found a vault with a treasure" and Abdallah says, "that really happened, it was found by my uncle Ibrahim." I assume in both books it has some symbolic meaning.
Apparently (you can't be sure of anything Abdallah says) Uncle Ibrahim disappeared for the last time taking Saraya with him (here Abdallah refers to him as "the ogre"), and Abdallah has always felt guilty for "forgetting" her, while he lived in the diaspora, until he finally comes back to try to find her and his past, in what he calls his "Via Dolorosa". (The book has many Christian allusions; although Abdallah is presumably Moslem, Habiby was raised Christian, and as he says the Zionists made no distinction. Note that Edward Said (the Palestinian activist and Columbia professor, not the Pessoptimist) was also from a Christian family.) As in the first novel (and presumably the other five) the real point is to describe the plight of the Palestinians driven out of Palestine or relegated to second-class status in Israel, without making that the obvious subject of the story.
October 14, 2021
I should give it a 3 and encourage others to at least try it. Your experience may be different than mine; but I had a hard time with it and therefore can't say I enjoyed it. The book is somewhat of a memoir, and in bits and pieces I did get a sense of what happened to the author and his family, to his country - sad and devastating. Unfortunately I don't have enough "inside" knowledge to follow all the ins and outs of wars, politics and social upheaval, or the Arabic mythology. I did read reviews that suggest this is a very different book by Habiby (his last), so perhaps I'll find a different one to change up my experience of his work.
August 14, 2025
حكاية لطيفة فيها الكثير مما أحب من الأشياء من لغة لطيفة وسخرية هادئة وحنين جارف لأزمنة ماضية واستحضار لحكايات من التراث وفوق ذلك كله جولة في مدن فلسطين تزيد القرب من البلاد وأهلها وعاداتهم وخرافاتهم ومحكياتهم ومن ذلك يدرك المرء التشابه مع أهلنا في مصر على الأقل في بعض جوانب اللهجات إن لم يكن في أكثر من ذلك.
December 20, 2024
Dans le folklore populaire, Soraya est une belle jeune fille kidnappée par un ogre et emprisonnée au sommet d’une tour. Son cousin, parti à sa recherche, la retrouve et, utilisant la longue chevelure de la demoiselle, grimpe le long de la tour pour la libérer.
Bref, la version palestinienne de Raiponce.
Suite sur le blog
Bref, la version palestinienne de Raiponce.
Suite sur le blog
January 12, 2008
I picked this up because I thought it would be as aesthetically pleasing as The Kite Runner, and also because I wanted to feel that first scene in Hamlet when it's foggy and the ghost of Hamlet's father shows up. This book is like an extended version of that scene, that includes some cultural background and history of words. At some point though, you may be wondering where the author is going because he seems to be drifting. I ended up skimming my way towards the end.
Want to read
May 17, 2011The publisher says: "Preeminent Palestinian novelist Habiby's late masterpiece is equal parts allegory, fairy tale, memoir, political commentary, and ode to a ruined landscape".
Trans. by Peter THEROUX -- another reason to read it.
I think I had earlier listed Habiby as someone to read sometime.
Trans. by Peter THEROUX -- another reason to read it.
I think I had earlier listed Habiby as someone to read sometime.
July 27, 2012
A warped glass window of allusion to a literature of exile--much of it necessarily sorrowful, difficult and twisted, some of it heightened and magnified, all of it memorable.
September 14, 2014
وخلصت الخرافية
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews