The Three Cultures of the Mediterranean Foundation and Casa Árabe will present the latest work by Gamal Ghitany, one of the greatest authors of contemporary Egyptian literature. ‘Hâtif al-Maghîb’ ‘The call of the west’, published by Alianza Editorial, is a fable that evokes the charm of ‘The Arabian Nights’. Gamal Ghitany will talk with Emilio González-Ferrín, Arabist and professor of Arabic and Islamic Thought at the University of Seville.
The presentation will take place at the terrace of the Three Cultures Foundation and will end with a musical performance by Aida Naranjo Mantero (flute soloist at the Orchestra Hispania Philharmonic and substitute at Madrid’s Opera Orchestra), who will transport us to Egypt with her music.
About ‘The call of the west’ ‘Hâtif al-Maghîb’.
Young Ahmad hears a voice in the middle of the night in his humble home in Cairo, asking him to get into the unknown, following the course of the sun. During his journey, Ahmad joins a camel caravan, learns how to find his way round the desert, becomes a guest at an oasis that does not appear in maps, is proclaimed prince of an incredible empire and ends up by the ocean, in front of its immensity with some books as his only luggage.
In its successive passages, of an extraordinary narrative beauty, the book conceals a humorous satire on the absurdity of some social and political traditions in the Arab world; but it is also an ode to all the wonders of this world, the mysteries of human life, walking into the unknown, following the course of the sun, following the call of the West.
Gamal Ghitany is one of the greatest authors of contemporary Egyptian literature, close to Nobel Prize laureate Naguib Mahfuz, about whom he wrote a biography. Ghitany published his first book of stories when he was seventeen, at a time he was working on the design of tapestries and carpets. He later became a journalist. He first covered the Arab-Israeli wars, the Lebanon war and the confrontation between Iraq and Iran. Later he occupied several management positions in the most prestigious Egyptian media. A committed author and journalist, in the sixties he was imprisoned by Nasser’s regime and was subsequently banned from publishing for several years for his criticism of President Sadat. His novels have been translated into the major languages, especially ‘The call of the west’ and ‘Zayni Barakat’. In 1980 he received the National Prize for Egyptian Literature.
Simultaneous interpreting from Arabic to Spanish.
Free admission subject to availability.
