TMR Book Club discusses “Granada: the complete trilogy” by Radwa Ashour with translator Kay Heikkinen
January 26 @ 19:00 - 20:00
Free
Join us on Sunday, January 26th at 1pm EST/ 6pm UK/ 7pm CET to discuss “Granada: the complete trilogy” by Radwa Ashour with translator, Kay Heikkinen.
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About the book:
Named a top literary work of the 20th century by the Arab Writers’ Union, this multigenerational epic is set at the collapse of Muslim rule in Medieval Spain, available now for the first time in a new, complete translation.
Set in 1492, Granada is about an ordinary Muslim family who must survive the Christian conquest of Arabic Spain. As the Castilian forces enter Granada, Muslims are slowly stripped of their rights: confiscations, forced conversions, and expulsions.
As the triumphant new masters of Granada burn books, Abu Jaafar, a bookseller by trade, quietly moves his rich library out of town, while preparing for the marriage of his granddaughter Saleema to his apprentice Saad. The tangled lives of Abu Jaafar’s family, his descendants, and his community bear witness to the vanquishing of Muslim life.
Radwa Ashour’s sweeping trilogy, set over one hundred years against the backdrop of the great historical events of 16th century Europe, tells the story of those who remained in Andalusia, of the individuals who struggled to maintain faith and hope for a possible future. It narrates a community’s effort to comprehend what has happened to them, of their valiant but ultimately unsuccessful efforts to resist the destruction of their identity.
Published by Hoopoe, translated by Kay Heikkinen, 2024.
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About the author and translator:
Radwa Ashour (1946–2014) is a highly acclaimed Egyptian writer and scholar. She is the author of more than fifteen works of fiction, memoir, and criticism, including Granada (AUC Press, 2008) and The Woman from Tantoura (AUC Press, 2014), and was a recipient of the Constantine Cavafy Prize for Literature and the prestigious Owais Prize for Fiction.
Kay Heikkinen is a translator and academic who holds a PhD from Harvard University. She was previously Ibn Rushd Lecturer of Arabic at the University of Chicago. Among other books, she has translated Naguib Mahfouz’s In the Time of Love, Radwa Ashour’s The Woman From Tantoura, and Huzama Habayeb’s Velvet, for which she was awarded the 2020 Saif-Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation. She lives in Seattle, Washington.