Abdellah Taia (born in 1973) is the author of six novels, including Salvation Army and An Arab Melancholia, both published by Semiotext(e), and Infidels. His novel Le jour du roi, about the death of Morocco's King Hassan II, won the 2010 Prix de Flore. He also directed and wrote the screenplay for the 2013 film adaptation of Salvation Army.
Taia writes from within a distinctly different Arab culture in this
passionate novel about two worlds intersecting.
*Pridesource: Between the Lines*
There is light and space in his prose. And despair. At times, he
uses the ellipsis suggestively…bringing out the apertures within
and between words and thoughts, eliciting the unbridgeable gap
between individuals. That is where desire seems to lie, and where
belonging−and melancholia−is to be found in his writing.
* Bookforum*
Melancholia offers a view into the life of a man still very much in
the making, a man still searching for love and answers. At one
point, he wonders, 'How are you supposed to go on living when
you're totally entangled in the sad, bitter, exciting memory of
someone who didn't love you back?' It is a question that cuts
across gender, sexual orientation, culture, and time-and stumps
anyone unfortunate enough to find himself in its path.
*Words Without Borders*
Taia writes from within a distinctly different Arab culture in this
passionate novel about two worlds intersecting.
*Pridesource: Between the Lines*
This is honest writing from a marginalized position. It leaves with
its readers an insistence that through everything there is always
something else that follows. It's neither a hesitant optimism nor a
beaten-down acceptance.... It's something else, something more
human. The weight of the world cannot be taken on as the Sisyphean
boulder, but rather we have to just forget about the world and make
sure we're moving forward.
*HTML Giant*
This slim autobiographical novel by an openly gay man who lives
between cultures in Egypt and France is the kind of wry, reflective
narrative prose that feels like poetry. Beautiful.
*Advocate*
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