The Night Will Have Its Say

The Night Will Have Its Say - Paperback

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$18.95
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The Night Will Have Its Say
  • The Night Will Have Its Say
The Night Will Have Its Say - Paperback

The Night Will Have Its Say - Paperback

by Ibrahim Al-Koni
$18.95
$18.95

Book Overview

by Ibrahim Al-Koni (Author), Nancy Roberts (Translator)

International Booker Prize finalist and "one of the Arab world's most innovative novelists" (Roger Allen) delivers a brilliant retelling of the Muslim wars of conquest in North Africa

The year is 693 and a tense exchange, mediated by an interpreter, takes place between Berber warrior queen al-Kahina and an emissary from the Umayyad General Hassan ibn Nu'man. Her predecessor had been captured and killed by the Umayyad forces some years earlier, but she will go on to defeat Ibn Nu'man's forces.


The Night Will Have Its Say is a retelling of the Muslim wars of conquest in North Africa during the seventh century CE, narrated from the perspective of the conquered peoples. Written in Ibrahim al-Koni's unique and enchanting voice, his lyrical and deeply poetic prose speaks to themes that are intensely timely. Through the wars and conflicts of this distant, turbulent era, he addresses the futility of war, the privilege of an elite few at the expense of the many, the destruction of natural habitats and indigenous cultures, and questions about literal and fundamentalist interpretations of religious texts.


Al-Koni's masterly account of conquest and resistance is both timeless and timely, infused with a sense of disaster and exile--from language, the desert, and homeland.


Author Biography

Ibrahim al-Koni was born in the northwest of the Sahara Desert in Libya in 1948 and learned to read and write Arabic at the age of twelve. He has been hailed a magical realist, a Sufi fabulist, and a poetic novelist, and his more than eighty books contain mythological elements, spiritual quests, and existential questions. His books have been translated into thirty-five languages and include Gold Dust, The Animist, The New Oasis, The Puppet, and many more. Among the many literary prizes to his name, he has been awarded the Sheikh Zayed Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. He currently lives in Spain.

Nancy Roberts is an award-winning translator of a number of Arabic novels including Salwa Bakr's The Man from Bashmour, for which she received a commendation in the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Translation, and Ibrahim Nasrallah's Time of White Horses, The Lanterns of the King of Galilee, and Gaza Weddings, for which she was awarded the 2018 Sheikh Hamad Prize for Translation and International Understanding. She lives in Wheaton, Illinois.


Number of Pages: 278
Dimensions: 0.79 x 8 x 5.25 IN
Publication Date: August 30, 2022
ISBN9781649031860
Author Ibrahim Al-Koni
PublisherHoopoe
GenreLiterature
FormatPaperback
PublishedAugust 2022
LanguageENG- English
Pages278
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Fiction Historical Fiction Literary War & Military

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About Ibrahim Al-Koni

Ibrahim al-Koni was born in the northwest of the Sahara Desert in Libya in 1948 and learned to read and write Arabic at the age of twelve. He has been hailed a magical realist, a Sufi fabulist, and a poetic novelist, and his more than eighty books contain mythological elements, spiritual quests, and existential questions. His books have been translated into thirty-five languages and include Gold Dust, The Animist, The New Oasis, The Puppet, and many more. Among the many literary prizes to his name, he has been awarded the Sheikh Zayed Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. He currently lives in Spain. Elliott Colla is the translator of a number of works of fiction, including Ibrahim Aslan's The Heron , Idris Ali's Poor, and Rabai al-Madhoun's The Lady from Tel Aviv. His translation of Gold Dust was a runner-up for the Saif Ghobash-Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation, and his novel, Baghdad Central, was adapted as a television series by Channel 4 (UK). He teaches modern Arabic literature at Georgetown University.

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