The International Prize for Arabic Fiction has released its 2024 six-title shortlist. Among the rest are two Palestinian novels: The Seventh Heaven of Jerusalem by Osama Al-Eissa and A Mask, the Colour of the Sky by Basim Khandaqji.
The other titles are: Bahbel: Makkah Multiverse 1945-2009 by Raja Alem, Suleima’s Ring by Rima Bali, Gambling on the Honor of Lady Mitsy by Ahmed Al-Morsi and The Mosaicist by Eissa Nasiri. Each of the six shortlisted finalists will receive $10,000, with a further $50,000 going to the winner, set to be announced on April 28, the eve of the Abu Dhabi Book Fair.
This year’s panel of judges is led by Syrian writer Nabil Suleiman. The panel also includes Palestinian writer, researcher and academic Sonia Nimr, Czech academic Frantisek Ondras, Egyptian critic and journalist Mohamed Shoair and Sudanese writer and journalist Hammour Ziada.
“The shortlisted novels offer us a profound fictional excavation of history, where the distant and more recent past and future intersect. Various civilisations and artistic forms are interwoven with their narratives. Their subjects include war, the body and family breakdown, questions of identity, oppression, cruelty, as well as individual and collective human longing for freedom and justice,” said Suleiman.
Image Credits: International Prize for Arabic Fiction
