{"product_id":"the-book-of-khartoum-a-city-in-short-fiction","title":"Ralph Cormack: The Book of Khartoum [2016] paperback","description":"Khartoum, according to one theory, takes its name from the Beja word hartooma, meaning 'meeting place'. Geographically, culturally and historically, the Sudanese capital is certainly that: a meeting place of the Blue and White Niles, a confluence of Arabic and African histories, and a destination point for countless refugees displaced by Sudan's long, troubled history of forced migration. In the pages of this book - the first major anthology of Sudanese stories to be translated into English - the city also stands as a meeting place for ideas: where the promise and glamour of the big city meets its tough social realities; where traces of a colonial past are still visible in day-to-day life; where the dreams of a young boy, playing in his father's shop, act out a future that may one day be his. Diverse literary styles also come together here: the political satire of Ahmed al-Malik; the surrealist poetics of Bushra al-Fadil; the social realism of the first postcolonial authors; and the lyrical abstraction of the new 'Iksir' generation. As with any great city, it is from these complex tensions that the best stories begin.","brand":"Cormack, Ralph \u0026 Al-Fadil, Bushra \u0026 Al-Makk, Ali \u0026 Al-Hilu, Isa \u0026 Gabriel Yak, Arthur","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46537758703955,"sku":"9781905583720","price":9.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0616\/4001\/6057\/products\/cormack-ralph-al-fadil-bushra-al-makk-ali-al-hilu-isa-gabriel-yak-arthur-the-book-of-khartoum-a-city-in-short-fiction-9781905583720-50477416907091.jpg?v=1682184577","url":"https:\/\/theirishbookshop.live\/products\/the-book-of-khartoum-a-city-in-short-fiction","provider":"Chapters Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}