A Sleepless Eye - (Middle East Literature in Translation) by Ibrahim Al-Koni (Hardcover)

About the Book

In this work the aphorisms collected from nine collections, are paired with spectacular photographs and focus on the natural environment, grouped by theme: nature, seasons, desert, water, sea, wind, rock, trees, and fire.

Book Synopsis

The Libyan landscape is one of the most diverse and breathtaking, replete with barren deserts, vast ocean coasts, and a stunning display of earth's elements. Al-Koni, an award-winning and critically acclaimed Arabic writer, reflects on this fragile environment and the increasing threats to its existence in A Sleepless Eye, a collection of the poet's desert wisdom. He highlights the relationships between humans and Libya's natural features, grouping them by theme: nature, desert, water, sea, wind, rock, trees, and fire. Each theme contains a set of aphorisms that deliver thoughtful perspectives on what it means to coexist with an evolving planet.

This volume is the result of the author's collaboration with the celebrated French nature photographer, Alain Sèbe, and English translator Allen. The product is a body of work that calls upon readers to question their relationship with the earth through meditative ideas and photos, familiarizing English readers with the fundamental philosophies of environmental stewardship that transcend all boundaries.

Review Quotes

A breathtaking distillation of the poetic and philosophic sensibility that makes al-Koni's work as a whole so original.--Shawkat M. Toorawa, Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University

These aphorisms are the unadorned poetry of deep meditation, the distilled wisdom of long communion with desert, sea, and wind. Here is the Gospel of environmentalism according to al-Koni, rendered in chaste English that diminishes none of its luster.--Waïl S. Hassan, Comparative and World Literature, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

About the Author

Ibrahim al-Koni was born in Libya in 1948. A Tuareg who writes in Arabic, he spent his childhood in the desert and learned to read and write Arabic when he was twelve. He studied comparative literature at the Gorky Institute in Moscow. He is the author of over eighty volumes, including novels, stories, and aphorisms, and has been translated into thirty-five languages.

Roger Allen retired in June 2011 from his positions as Sascha Jane Patterson Harvie Professor of Social Thought and Comparative Ethics, School of Arts and Sciences, professor of Arabic and comparative literature, and chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania.