Minor Detail, by Adania Shibli
Details
Join us as we begin our journey into MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) literature by discussing Shibli's novel - the first of two works focused on Palestine with which we're starting the series.
Publisher's description:
"A searing, beautiful novel meditating on war, violence, memory, and the sufferings of the Palestinian people
Finalist for the National Book Award
Longlisted for the International Booker Prize
Minor Detail begins during the summer of 1949, one year after the war that the Palestinians mourn as the Nakba―the catastrophe that led to the displacement and exile of some 700,000 people―and the Israelis celebrate as the War of Independence. Israeli soldiers murder an encampment of Bedouin in the Negev desert, and among their victims they capture a Palestinian teenager and they rape her, kill her, and bury her in the sand.
Many years later, in the near-present day, a young woman in Ramallah tries to uncover some of the details surrounding this particular rape and murder, and becomes fascinated to the point of obsession, not only because of the nature of the crime, but because it was committed exactly twenty-five years to the day before she was born. Adania Shibli masterfully overlays these two translucent narratives of exactly the same length to evoke a present forever haunted by the past."
If you don't have a physical copy of the book, you can find a copy of it here:
Our plan is to meet at Dokdabang Cafe (독수리 다방) in Sinchon, which is on the 8th floor of the building indicated on the map linked to on this page. The address of Dokdabang is 36, Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 03776. Below are Kakao Maps and Naver Maps links to the cafe:
https://kko.kakao.com/-U2GDIbg1b
If you plan to attend this meeting and would like updates you can join our ‘Reading Modern Lit active’ OpenChat on KakaoTalk. Feel free to leave and return to this chat based on your activity. The purpose of this chat is to better gauge who plans to attend our meetings as there are often no-shows.
Reading Modern Lit (active)
https://open.kakao.com/o/gaqP0Hre