Writing the Arab World: Reading to Help Understand the Arab Spring

This past year has seen tremendous upheaval in the Arab world.

Today Libyans marked the anniversary of the beginning of their uprising against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

Meanwhile Egyptians persevere on the road to democracy.

Last month they marked the one-year anniversary of the start of protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

Elsewhere in the region, the “Arab Spring” continues.

Marco Werman talks to John Freeman, editor of British literary magazine Granta, for suggestions on writing from the Arab world to help us understand what’s happening there.

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Marco Werman: As we mentioned earlier, there were celebrations today in Libya. They mark the first anniversary of the start of the uprising there against Moammar Gadhafi, and just last month people in Egypt marked the first anniversary of their revolution. The Arab Spring is still a work in progress across the region. Just look at Syria, but still it’s been a full year now of Arab Spring in the Middle East, a good time to stop for a moment to talk about which writers from the region can help us better understand what’s been happening there. For that, we turn to John Freeman. He edits the British literary magazine, Granta.

John Freeman: For a long time we had the interpreters of the Arab world who were talking to the Arab street. We had the dictators who were creating the narrative of their countries, but we never really actually heard from the people, and what’s so exciting about this revolution is that you’re hearing from the people, and I think to go directly into the Arab world now, I think you kind of have to go back in time and read some of the novelists who were writing stories about everyday people in recent books or as far back as Naguib Mahfouz. His Cairo trilogy is a brilliant novel about Egypt and you get a real sense of the humor and the warmth, the sarcasm in his books, and I really hope people go back to him because I think if we only read what’s happening right now in Egypt, think that there’s a sense that we could be in the eternal present tense.

Werman: John, you must look at a lot of things that are happening in the literary sphere and since we’re talking about the Arab world, I’m just wondering, since the uprisings there last year, have you noticed more writing coming out of places like Tunisia and Egypt and Libya?

Freeman: Well, the biggest problem right now with getting books out of the Arab world, is translation. There are two or three brilliant, quite eminent translators from Arabic into English, but there aren’t the wide range of translators that you have, for example, from Spanish into English, but there are more and more books being published. There’s an Arab booker, the University of Cairo Press has a translation of over a hundred stories from Egyptian writers coming out this spring, which is really wonderful.

Werman: Current Egyptian writers?

Freeman: Current Egyptian writers. It starts sort of 1950 ‘ish but goes up to the present day and there’s a lot of current Egyptian writers and you see a huge range. One other thing that I think people should really look at is there’s a book called Tweets from Tahrir which tells the story of the revolution in Egypt from January 25th onward through a sort of oral history of the tweets.

Werman: That’s fascinating and does it read, kind of a nice beginning, middle and narrative to it?

Freeman: It has a narrative to it actually…

Werman: Wow.

Freeman: …and this was combed from thousands and thousands and thousands of these tweets so Twitter literature, if you call it that…

Werman: Twitterature.

Freeman: …is sort of instant literature, but it does give you a sense of what the voice of people there is like.

Werman: Now you suggested going back and digging around in some of the older literature. You mentioned Nigi Mafoos from Egypt. What about places, I mean I don’t really know any of the writers from Yemen or Syria. Who are the writers there who should be on our radar screen?

Freeman: Very, very difficult to find them to be honest. Very few of these writers are translated and also, the Yemeni’s and the Syrians have much more tradition in poetry than in a novel. There were lots of Egyptians short story writers and novelists. There are lots of Lebanese short story writers and novelists. There’s a whole generation of Saudi novelists coming up. Yusuf Mohammed who is quite good and wrote a book called the Wolves of the Crescent Moon, and you get in his books he doesn’t live there anymore because he can’t, a sense of the social disparity which this revolution is so pushing against, and it’s very powerful, his writing.

Werman: Now, you mentioned the problem of translation, that there are just not enough good translators, and lots of times the best observers are people who actually have a foot in both worlds and do speak English, and their local language is probably Arabic. Who are the writers today who are doing a really good job of reflecting on the Arab world and on the Arab Spring from outside that world?

Freeman: Well, the biggest criteria in my mind is that they speak Arabic and they speak it well. There’s a guy named Johnny West who published a book in August. The title of the book escapes me, but he’s a fantastic reporter because he spends a lot of time in cafes, on buses. He’s worked in Syria and Lebanon and Egypt for almost two decades and he’s a really terrific reporter because he is able to talk to people, everyday people about what’s happening. From what I sense about the reporting and the people I’ve spoken to, people that we’ve published, there is a sense that the world was watching them, that there’s a time limit on how long this will have the interest of the Western world, so they’re very much aware of the way the revolution is being covered. I think that’s why you’re going to start to see books from within the revolution like the gentleman who worked at Google.

Werman: Right, Y.O. Gonim.

Freeman: Revolution 2.0, yeah, and he has a foot in both worlds. He’s from that part of the world, but he also works for Google and the social media technology is so much a part of this revolution. I think that’s going to be a very important book because I think the model of that revolution will be exported and fought against by the people in governments.

Werman: I mean Revolution 2.0 is both very much of the moment of Tahrir Square but it also is a kind of memoir. I’m wondering if there’s any kind of memoir that you strongly recommend?

Freeman: I mean there’s a book coming out in March by Ahdaf Soueif who’s Egyptian, called My Cairo, and she’s been going back and forth and she’s run a Palestinian literary festival for a couple of years, so she’s got more a foot in both worlds, but she’s constantly trying to square the Cairo that she grew up with, with the Cairo of today and the questions of home and belongings and whether you want to stay in a country, these are at the heart of this revolution because a lot of people left these countries.

Werman: Right.

Freeman: There’s been a major brain drain in Egypt and in Lybia and in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, in many cases because of the violence, the torture, just the conditions that people have to live in and a lot of writers are going to have to struggle with these questions about, ‘where do I belong,’ and a lot of people are probably going to wind up coming back to countries that they don’t recognize.

Werman: John Freeman, Editor of Granta Magazine. Thank you very much.

Freeman: Thanks for having me.

Werman: We’ve got links to all the books John mentioned at theworld.org.

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Yousef Al-Mohimeed – “Wolves of the Crescent Moon”

Saudi writer Yousef Al-Mohaimeed’s powerful writing gives a sense of the social disparity that the uprisings in the Arab world have been protesting.

Find “Wolves of the Crescent Moon” at Amazon

Naguib Mahfouz – “The Cairo Trilogy”

Brilliant writing that gives a real sense of the humor, warmth and sarcasm of the Egyptian people.

Find “The Cairo Triology” at Amazon

Johnny West – “Karama!: Journeys Through the Arab Spring”

Johnny West is a fantastic reporter who is able to talk to everyday people about what’s happening in the region.

Find “Karama! Journeys Through the Arab Spring” at Amazon

Tweets from Tahrir – Edited by Nadia Idle and Alex Nunns

“Twitterature” that tells the story of the revolution in Egypt from January 25th and onwards — in tweets.

Find Tweets from Tahrir at Amazon

Wael Ghonim – “Revolution 2.0″

Wael Ghonim has a foot in both worlds: he’s Egyptian but he works for Google. This will be an important book because the model of that revolution will be exported, and fought against by the people in governments.

Hear The World’s interview with Wael Ghonim here.

Find “Revolution 2.0″ at Amazon

Ahdaf Soueif – Cairo: My City, Our Revolution

Egyptian Ahdaf Soueif is constantly trying to square the Cairo that she grew up with, with the Cairo of today.

Find “Cairo: My City, Our Revolution” at Amazon