April 2019, La Viduite.
The fear of fear, the vertiginous duplication of fiction, a story that merges with a reality whose unbearable horror is then revealed. By dipping into the psyche of a disturbed woman, by the exact restitution of her obsessions and gestures, Dima Wannous manages to draw a sadly faithful portrait of contemporary Syria. With its carnal precision, “The frightened” appears like an immense novel about human fear and mechanisms of defense.

Review by Kerenn Elkaïm for Livres Hebdo, April 2019
« La mémoire, soit elle existe, soit elle n ‘existe pas. Soit tu te réconcilies avec elle, soit tu t’en détournes. » Sulayma ne parvient pas à la chasser. Elle songe à Nissim, « ce jeune homme étrange aux os protubérants. » L’héroïne le croise dans un lieu improbable, la salle d’attente de leur psy.

The 12th edition of IPAF ceremony held in Abu Dhabi, on April 23rd, rewarded Hoda Barakat for her novel “Night Post”

By Melhem Chaoul, for L’Orient littéraire, published April 2019.
Starting with the title, Malek al-Hind (The King of India): There are no kings (in that story), let alone Kings of the Indian peninsula. By this metaphor, Jabbour Douaihy signifies the absence of power, the absence of control over fate, such as the Viceroy of the Indies at the time of the British Empire who managed a state whose fate was decided elsewhere.
Zaccaria Mubarak’s destiny is thus fashioned, fluctuating like the “Raft of the Medusa” on the murky waters of countries and continents.
The novel begins …