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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
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Palestinian writer jailed in Israel wins top Arabic book prize | |
By Radina Gigova and Sarah Sirgany, CNN | |
Updated: | |
9:05 AM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
A Palestinian writer who has been in an Israeli prison for 20 years has | |
won a prestigious prize for Arabic fiction for his novel “A Mask, the | |
Color of the Sky.” | |
Basim Khandaqji won the prize on Sunday for his book, and was awarded | |
$50,000 and funding for an English translation. | |
The “mask” of the book’s title is, metaphorically, a blue | |
identity card belonging to an Israeli found by the protagonist, Nur, in | |
the pocket of an old coat. | |
Nur, an archaeologist living in a refugee camp in Ramallah, adopts this | |
“mask,” and “what follows is an experimental and multi-layered | |
narrative which sets out to reclaim elements of history and place with | |
vivid and memorable characterization,” said the International Prize | |
for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), which announced the prizewinner at a | |
ceremony Abu Dhabi. | |
The novel, published by Lebanon’s Dar Al-Adab, “dissects a complex, | |
bitter reality of family fragmentation, displacement, genocide, and | |
racism,” said Nabil Suleiman, a Syrian writer who chaired the 2024 | |
prize. | |
“The strands of history, myth, and the present day are delicately | |
woven together in a narrative that pulses with compassion in the face | |
of dehumanization and is stirred by a desire for freedom from | |
oppression, both at an individual and societal level,” said Suleiman. | |
Born in Nablus in 1983, Khandaqji is serving three life sentences in | |
connection with a deadly suicide bombing at Tel Aviv’s Camel Market | |
in 2004, which killed three people and injured dozens, according to UAE | |
state media, The National. | |
His brother, Yousef Khandaqji, attended the award ceremony at Abu | |
Dhabi’s Fairmont Bab Al Bahr and said: “Speaking on behalf of my | |
dear brother, he dedicates this victory to all the Palestinian | |
people.” | |
“I miss him every day and he is in our hearts every day,” he added. | |
Khandaqji began to write “A Mask, the Color of the Sky” in 2021. | |
The novel took six months to complete, while the research took several | |
years. | |
During his time in prison, Khandaqji has written poetry collections, as | |
well as three earlier novels, according to IPAF. | |
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