One afternoon, Sheikh Abdelmajid Boularwah embarks upon a journey in search of distant relatives. His immediate family are ruthless, rich and collaborate with colonial authorities. He hopes his long-lost relatives, who are unknown to the new Communist government, might be better placed to help him defraud it.
Through a labyrinth of back alleys and memories, Boularwah makes his way from Algiers across the seven bridges of Constantine, battling the forces of a rapidly changing society while confronting the demons of his own past.
The Earthquake offers a surrealist vision of post-colonial Algeria — a society in chaos, a world turned upside down. Written in the early 1970s, this classic work by pioneering novelist Tahir Wattar presciently foretells the dreadful events which would later besiege his country.
About the author
William Granara is professor of Arabic language and literature at Harvard University, and the former executive director of the Center for Arabic Study at the American University in Cairo. He is the founding director of Harvard Summer School’s program Postcolonial Studies: France and the Arab World and co-editor of the recently published The Thousand and One Nights: Sources and Transformations in Literature, Art, and Science (2020).
More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
769,864 Ebooks in this category
