Banipal publishes Rachida Lamrabet and Rodaan Al Galidi

The theme of 35th issue of Banipal. Magazine of modern Arab literature is 'writing in Dutch'. The magazine features fragments from Rachida Lamrabet's novel Woman country and from Rodaan Al Galidi's novel Thirsty river.

Banipal is an independent literary magazine, based in London, publishing contemporary authors and poets from all over the Arab world in English translation. It's a magazine for lovers of literature, of world literature, to encourage a wider readership of Arab writers and poets for their own sake, and for both the particularity and the universality of their voices.

Woman country: German rights sold to Luchterhand

Luchterhand Verlag has acquired German rights for Woman Country by Rachida Lamrabet. The German translation of this awardwinning novel will be published in Sammlung Luchterhand, a prestigious series of contemporary authors. Sammlung Luchterhand features work by Michail Bulgakov, Nathan Englander, Pablo Neruda, Christa Wolf, Victor Pelevin and Dimitri Verhulst.

Woman Country is Rachida Lamrabet's debut novel. The book has attracted a great deal of interest and was extremely well received. Her second book, a collection of stories called God's child, has recently been published. Already this is hailed as a 'masterpiece' (Knack).

Last month Rachida Lamrabet received the annual prize for the best Flemish debut. Earlier this year Woman Country was nominated for the Selexyz debut prize. The novel has just reached the longlist of the Dutch Academica Debutantenprijs.

Rachida Lamrabet creates in Woman Country a subtle and convincing portrait of a fascinating woman, who, standing firmly by her decisions must pay the social and intellectual price. Mariam, a Moroccan Woman in Antwerp who has chosen a Western lifstyle, embraces her personal freedom, but not without encountering opposition and doubt. At the end of a holiday in Morocco she agrees, without thinking, to marry Younes. For five years he waits for her to return. Meanwhile Faïza hopes that Younes will notice her instead. Finally, deciding to deliver one last desperate letter to Mariam in Europe in person, Younes dies on the illegal crossing to Spain. A survivor carries the letter on to Mariam...

English sample translation available.

Rachida Lamrabet in Brussels

Rachida Lamrabet will take part in the celebrations of the tenth anniverary of Het beschrijf, a literary organisation with its home in Brussels. Lamrabet makes her appearance during a magnificent evening at the KVS-theatre. Other participants include Kader Abdolah, Jens Christian Grøndahl, Thomas Gunzig, Lieve Joris, Rachida Lamrabet, Claudio Magris, Alberto Manguel, Cees Nooteboom, Richard Powers (film) and Peter Verhelst.

For this occasion 'Rachid' one of the stories from Lamrabets second book A child of God has been translated into French.

Woman country nominated for the Academica debut prize

Rachida Lamrabet's debut novel Woman country is on the longlist of the Dutch Academica Debutantenprijs. Nominees are to be announced at the end of November. See also: http://www.academicadebutantenprijs.nl/

Woman Country by Rachida Lamrabet: the best literary debut of 2008!

The flemish award for the best literary debut of 2008 goes to the novel Woman Country by Rachida Lamrabet. This has been announced today by Boek.be, the flemish organisation of publishers and booksellers.

'A remarkably powerful debut novel.'
(De Morgen)

'A unique perspective on our woman-friendly society.'
(Trouw)

Woman Country was published by Meulenhoff/Manteau in the fall of 2007. Earlier this year the novel was also nominated for the Dutch Selexyz Debut Prize.

Rachida Lamrabet (1970) is a Belgian author. She works as a lawyer for the Centre for Equality of Opportunity and Opposition to Racism (Brussels). Woman Country has attracted a great deal of interest and was extremely well received. Her second book, a collection of stories called God's child, has just been published. Already this is hailed as a 'masterpiece' (Knack).

About Woman Country

Resistance or resignation are the only options, or so Mariam the central character in Woman Country believes. A Moroccan Woman in Antwerp who has chosen a Western lifstyle, she embraces her personal freedom, but not without encountering opposition and doubt. The cultural conflicts in Mariam’s life emerge in her tragic story. At the end of a holiday in Morocco she agrees, without thinking, to marry Younes. For five years he waits for her to return. Meanwhile Faïza hopes that Younes will notice her instead. Finally, deciding to deliver one last desperate letter to Mariam in Europe in person, Younes dies on the illegal crossing to Spain. A survivor carries the letter on to Mariam.

To pay her final respects, Mariam goes with her brother to visit the place where Younes’ body was washed ashore. In southern Spain she decides to make the crossing to Morocco. There she faces not only confrontation with Faïza but incomprehension and criticism of her rejection of traditional values and customs. ‘Are you happy?’ a sympathetic aunt asks her. There can be no simple answer.

It is Lamrabet’s convincing interpretation of the characters’ points of view which makes Woman Country so captivating. The novel presents a Moroccan outlook on the differences between Moroccans in Morocco and those who have emigrated; between their own values, which often marginalise Moroccans in Europe, and Western values, including the rampant consumerism that causes such envy in Morocco; between tradition, which so tragically impedes Faïza’s life, and the modern ways of thinking that men find so hard to deal with. Woman Country is how they refer to the West, where they believe emancipated women have taken charge.

Rachida Lamrabet creates above all a subtle and convincing portrait of a fascinating woman, who, standing firmly by her decisions must pay the social and intellectual price. Whether in Morocco, where as a woman on her own she cannot find a hotel room, or in Belgium, where a political party exploits her activism for its own ends, she constantly has to struggle against prejudice. In the cemetery in her native village, filled with melancholy and doubt, she is finally able to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of her choices in life. In Woman Country we are in the hands of a promising writer with a distinctive voice of her own.

English sample translation available.