Description
Translated by Peter Thompson. This gripping first novel of the well-known Tunisian writer and performer Wafa Ghorbel won her the Prix Découverte, among the prestigious Comar d'Or prizes, when it was released in French in 2016. Now translated into multiple languages, and with a sequel in the works, this novel/memoir takes us from Ghorbel's abused childhood through college years at the Sorbonne, a difficult sexuality and early marriage, all in the form of an epistolary to her rapist. Ghorbel's voice is at times cool and judgmental, at times breaking with emotion, but always compelling, as it traces her move to France and a growing resistance to the restrictive laws and traditions in her home country.
Fiction. Middle Eastern Studies. Women's Studies.
Author Bio
Wafa Ghorbel is a French-Tunisian writer, academic and singer-lyricist. Born in Sfax, she was awarded her doctorate from the Sorbonne in 2004 for her thesis entitled Le Mal dans l'oeuvre romanesque de Georges Bataille. She has published numerous scholarly articles on Bataille and Marguerite Duras. Le Jasmin noir (2016), Ghorbel's first novel, won her the Prix Découverte dans le cadre des Comar d'or 2016. In 2017, Le Tango de la déesse des dunes, a sequel to her first novel, appeared and was featured at the Tunis International Book Fair and the Center for Research, Studies, Documentation and Information on Women (CREDIF). In 2018, she presided over the Choix Goncourt of Tunisia with Virginie Despentes. In 2019, she published her own translation, in literary Arabic, of Le Jasmin noir. In 2020, she was juror for the Francophone Pen Prize. Besides publishing and literary endeavors, Ghorbel sings, composes and designs musical projects. She collaborated with French-Lebanese pianist Elie Malouf on a project entitled Rhapsodie turquoise, and then with the French jazzman Édouard Bineau on a project titled Oriental Jazz Standards which revolves around revisited standards by Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, George Gershwin and Chet Baker.
Author City: TUN