French edition of 'Fe Ghorfat al- Ankabut' receives Arab Literature Award

CAIRO - 8 November 2019: The French edition of Mohamed Abdel Nabi’s novel “Fe Ghorfat al- Ankabut” (La Chambre De L'Araignée) was awarded the Arab Literature Award presented by the Arab Institute in Paris.

The novel was published by Al-Ain Publishing House. Translated by Gilles Gaultier, the French edition was published by Sindbad Publishing House.

The novel is inspired by the events of detaining 52 men for performing “homosexual acts” in a case known in the Egyptian community by the “Queen Boat Case” in 2001. The detained men received different sentences; some were set free, while others were imprisoned for 2-3 years.

The committee- chaired by Pierre Leroy - unanimously selected Mohamed Abdel Nabi's novel and described it as a "bold writing in a strong and resolute manner that plunges the reader into the heart of taboos in the Egyptian and Arab societies. This is a novel that can be a poem of tolerance and humanity.”

In the novel, Hany Mahfouz (one of the detainees) was released. He was a human wreck, aiming to start a long psychological recovery, but he finds no help in anything other than writing every day, having lost his ability to speak for psychological reasons during the trial.

The novel was previously awarded the Sawiris Cultural Award and made it to the short list in the Arab Booker Awards.