After coming to Vienna from Sudan to win a better life for himself, Hamza struggles to escape from the margins of society and the stigma of the immigrant. Following several years of hardship, his fortunes begin to change when he meets Sandra, a young Austrian woman, who shows him the Palm House. In this famous Viennese greenhouse, the frost of Hamza’s heart begins to thaw, and he slowly opens himself to Sandra, revealing his bitter yet beautiful past in Sudan and beyond. This masterful novel draws on the 1001 Nights as well as Sudanese folk traditions, and demonstrates the remarkable power of storytelling to overcome even the most dire circumstances. Critically acclaimed across the Arab world, this novel can be read on its own, or as a sequel to Eltayeb’s first novel, Cities without Palms (AUC Press, 2009).
The Palm House
Tarek Eltayeb
Translated byKareem James Abu-Zeid
11 May 2012
352 pp.
15X23cm
ISBN 9789774164828
For sale worldwide
$24.95
Tarek Eltayeb was born to Sudanese parents in Cairo in 1959, and has lived in Vienna since 1984. He studied at the Institute for Economic Philosophy at Vienna’s University of Economics, and currently teaches at three Austrian universities. He has published two novels, two collections of short stories, five collections of poetry, one play, and an autobiography. His works have been translated into German, English, Italian, French, Spanish, Macedonian, Romanian, and Serbian. He is a faculty member of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. He received the Elias Cannetti Fellowship of the City of Vienna in 2005 and the International Grand Prize for Poetry at the 2007 Curtea de Arge? Festival in Romania. In 2008, he was appointed Austrian Ambassador for the European Year for Intercultural Dialogue. In the same year, he received the Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria. His first novel, Cities without Palms, was published in English translation by the AUC Press in 2009. Further information about his life and work can be found at www.eltayeb.at.
Also available by this author
Cities without Palms
Tarek EltayebTranslated byKareem James Palmer-Zeid
In a desperate attempt to save his mother and two sisters from famine and disease, a young man leaves his native village in Sudan and sets out alone to seek work in the city. This is the beginning of Hamza’s long journey. Hunger and destitution lead him ever farther from his home: first from Sudan to Egypt, where the lack of work forces him to join a band of smugglers, and finally from Egypt to Europe—Italy, France, Holland—where he experiences first-hand the harsh world of migrant laborers and the bitter realities of life as an illegal immigrant. Tarek Eltayeb’s first novel offers an uncompromising depiction of poverty in both the developed and the developing world. With its simple yet elegant style, Cities without Palms tells of a tragic human life punctuated by moments of true joy.
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30 January 2016
Paperback
100 pp.12.5X20cm
$14.95
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