Voices of the Lost: Winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2019
By (Author) Hoda Barakat
Translated by Marilyn Booth
Oneworld Publications
Oneworld Publications
30th March 2021
4th February 2021
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary
Fiction: general and literary
892.736
Winner of International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2019
Paperback
208
Width 135mm, Height 216mm, Spine 16mm
"In an unnamed country torn apart by war, six strangers are compelled to share their darkest secrets. Taking pen to paper, each character attempts to put in writing what they can't bring themselves to say to the person they love mother, father, brother, lost love. Their words form a chain of dark confessions, none of which reaches the intended recipient. Profound, troubling and deeply human, Voices of the Lost tells the moving story of characters living on the periphery, battling with displacement, devastating poverty and the demons within themselves. From one of today's most talented Arabic writers, Voices of the Lost is an urgent story of lives intimately woven together in a society that is tearing itself apart. "
'Emotionally punchy.'
-- The Sunday Times'The tragedies inVoices of the Lost are agonising...[a] searing prizewinner.'
-- Madeleine Thien, Guardian'Spare and deep,Voices of the Lostcaptivates. Hoda Barakat is one of Lebanon's greatest gifts to literature, and Booth allows her English audience to explore this painful and irresistible present.'
-- Amy Bloom, author of White Houses'An astonishing novel, superbly translated from the original Arabic, in which grave, naked confessions are delivered by characters orbiting in motion. It is a fierce, challenging exploration of the extremities of rootlessness and desperation, rendered in a shocking clarity of voice.'
-- Leila Aboulela, author of Bird Summons'Hoda Barakat's new novel reveals to us the many faces of power, war, love and despair asdestinies mysteriously intersect, and all certainties are shaken.Through these letters, we glimpse the hidden story of immigration: characters condemned to suffer for nothing more than being born in the wrong place.'
-- Jokha Alharthi, author of Celestial Bodies, winner of the Man Booker International Prize'Drawing on the power of testimonial, Hoda Barakat's characters relate tales of loss, regret, and displacement. Beautifully written and filled with a raw, audacious honesty, these lost and found letters draw readers into an extraordinary embrace and refuse to let go.'
-- Diana Abu-Jaber, author of Birds of Paradise'Marilyn Booth captures the starkness ofVoices of the Lost It isn't surprising that two of the most interesting authors to write about the migrant crises of the last ten years were subjects of earlier waves of displacement.'
-- London Review of Books'Hoda Barakat is one of the most versatile and innovative novelists in the Arab world. Here, in a fugue of undelivered letters, she etches the portraits of a series of existential refugees, lost between countries, languages, and lives.'
-- Marilyn Hacker, author of Blazons'A subversive novel that examines sorrow, longing, violence, kindness, and compassion. The places may be named, but the protagonists are nameless. We love them because they are us.'
-- Fady Joudah, author of Tethered to StarsA writer for our times: her prose is at once reflective and morally astute. Her novels possess a gravity in their confident, thoughtful style that bursts with tension and profound emotion.
* Mediapart *A short, deeply intense novel. A book of shadows which shows us the cracks threatening the modern Arab world.
* France Culture *Anger, despair and passion are lyrically expressed...the beauty of her writing does nothing to detract from the candour of this narrative.
* Livres Hebdo *Hoda Barakat offers a penetrating insight into the minds of people whose inner lives are all too often dismissed without a second thought.
* L'Humanit *In a style that is by turns precise and sumptuous, Hoda Barakat... tirelessly explores themes of metamorphosis, of madness, of countries left behind, and of journeys with no hope of return.
* Le Matricule des Anges *An immensely talented novelist.
* Transfuge *'So many universal human themes are touched on in thisoutstandingnovel that it is impossible in these few words to do them, or it, justice Every one of us will find something in these pages that reflects our own experience Though our paths may be different, we are all ultimately united in seeking truth, freedom, compassion and forgiveness.'
-- New Internationalist'This intense, raw and human novel which does not shy away from showing life's fallibilities, feels both hopeless and hopeful [Barakat] isn't tone deaf to the tragedy the Middle East has recently seen nor does she believe it makes up one person's entire story and identity.'
-- TheNewArab'Voices of the Lostmanages to pull off quite a feat. This is a novel about war, it is a political novel. It is also a novel about love, ranging from filial to romantic, abuse, trauma, fatherhood, motherhood, its all in there. Like a piece of tapestry this novel weaves in themes, which create [a] multi-layered resulta one of a kind novel [Booth's translation] is fantastic and captures the emotions of all the characters. Having won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, I would not be surprised to see it garner more awards this year.'
-- The BobsphereHoda Barakat was born in Beirut in 1952. She studied French Literature at the Lebanese University and moved to Paris with her family in 1989. She has published five novels and two plays. Her novels have been translated into several languages and received numerous prestigious prize nominations. The Tiller of Waters (2000) was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature while her fifth novel, The Kingdom of This Earth, (2012) was longlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2013. In 2015, she was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize (at the time awarded in recognition of an author's body of work). She currently lives in France.