São Paulo – The Arabic novel Night Post was written in 2017 by Hoda Barakat and has recently been translated into Portuguese. The Lebanese author has lived in Paris for over 30 years and is a powerful voice of the Middle Eastern literature. Written in Arabic as always, Barakat tells in Night Post the story of refugee people in the form of unsent letters.
The author doesn’t name the countries of origin or destination but makes it clear that the characters are Arabs in some place in Europe. The 160-page book was translated from Arabic into Portuguese by renowned translator Safa Jubran and published by Tabla, a Rio de Janeiro-based publishing house specialized in Arab and Middle Eastern books. The book won the 2019 International Prize for Arabic Fiction and can be bought at the publishing house’s website.
ANBA talked to Tabla editorial director Laura di Pietro about the book. She said that the novel was chosen last year, when she was in an publisher program in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Hoda Barakat had just won the international prize for Arabic fiction.
“She won and learned about her name. She has other wonderful books, and I met her publisher in this event in Sharjah who gave me her number, and then we made our first purchase,” Pietro said, mentioning the mediation of the Agency for Arabic Literature (RAYA).
Barakat writes all her books in Arabic, Pietro said. “Her nationality is written in Arabic. She has lived in France for 35 years, is bilingual, but Arabic is her literature language,” she said.
On the refugee issue, Pietro says that the fact that Barakat didn’t name the countries of origin or destination shows that she wanted to emphasize the refuge itself and the invisibility these Arab refugees suffer in Europe.
“She took inspiration from watching people arriving on rafts, then she started to think on that as she was living in Europe, so she also sees the receiving side as well. There is no easy solution for the matter, but her writing is very crude, unrelentless, while moving you so much. She went deep into our humanity, where we could relate, by describing extreme situations and showing us the truth. She gives voice to the invisible, and I believe she is quite modern and brave in bringing up this issue without fear of being criticized,” Pietro said.
The publisher said that Barakat has the power to make the reader get out of his comfort zone. “Barakat puts you in an unusual, untrivial place. These people exist, this situation exists and hits millions. It’s an easy book to read, but it’s layered and shows more and more as you reread it,” she said.
Pietro intends to publish other book by Barakat next year, “The Tiller of Waters,” from 2015. She said that Jubran is working on the translation.
By the end of the year, Tabla will have more five adult and two children’s books published. The publishing house also intends to publish more from Arab women. “Our goal is making these cultures more and more available. With a more contemporary design, contemporary authors, we want to attract young readers and Arab descendants that don’t speak Arabic,” Pietro said.
Quick Facts
Night Post
Hoda Barakat
Translated by Safa Jubran
Tabla publishing house
160 pages
ISBN 978-65-86824-03-2
BRL 52
editoratabla.com.br
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
