Honey Hunger
A Novel
Zahran Alqasmi author Marilyn Booth translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:American University in Cairo Press
Published:4th Feb '25
Should be back in stock very soon
A breathtaking novel of longing, uncertainty, and ultimately of hope, written by an International Prize for Arabic Fiction-winning author and an International Booker-prize winning translator
Azzan is a beekeeper in a rural community in Oman. Devoted to tending his bees and searching for wild hives, he encounters Thamna, a lone shepherd woman, on a mountain slope and is captivated by her and her honey-colored eyes.
Across the breathtaking vistas of Oman’s remote mountains and plains, Azzan’s troubled past and present unfold. A disappointment to his family, he turns to drink, and ultimately discovers the healing power of his beekeeping, before an accident in which he loses all.
Zahran Alqasmi’s masterful novel thrums forward with a subtle momentum. His lucid, poetic writing conveys a visceral sense of time and place, of the fragile ecologies inhabited by both bees and humans alike, in this intense and compelling novel of loss and hope.
"Zahran Alqasmi portrays the inimitable lifeways deep in Oman’s mountainous interior as no other writer does. We can taste and smell the sweet pungency of the natural world that this powerful writing brings forth. In this exceptional narrative, hunger for honey portends hunger for the unknown: Alqasmi’s characters are ever on the move to discover who they are by means of searching for the ever-elusive mountain honey."—Jokha Alharthi, author of Celestial Bodies
"An evocative, unpredictable novel."—Words Without Borders
“This captivating novel is a search for hope, longing, love. . . . [T]hose readers who enjoy lyrical books, as the author is also a poet, will be transported to a rich and vibrant world among the bees.” —Tulsa Book Review
“This is a landscape novel that seems to sit outside of time, technology and politics. . . . Honey Hunger. . . succeeds in drawing the reader into a distinctly drawn landscape and way of life.” —Irish Times
"Alqasmi uses simple, elegant language to describe Azzan’s beekeeping tasks and the dramatic landscape, two motifs to which his narrative keeps returning."—Booklist
"Literary takes on the human experience. . . . Azzan exhibits external quiet and calm, but his thoughts are revelatory, illuminating his ardent passion for beekeeping." —Foreword Reviews
"The storytelling is poetic, creative, and striking."—Al-Quds Al-Arabi
PRAISE FOR ZAHRAN ALQASMI:
"Rich yet accessible prose"—The National
"Sensitive poetic language . . . transports us"—Mohammed Achaari, International Prize for Arabic Fiction Judge
PRAISE FOR MARILYN BOOTH:
"Words touch down delicately on each page. . . . formidable"—Electric Literature (on Bitter Orange Tree)
"Gorgeously translated"—The Washington Post (on Bitter Orange Tree)
"Booth’s translation honors the elliptical rhythms of Arabic and the language’s rich literary heritage. She imbues the book’s numerous poetic extracts with lyricism and devotedly preserves the rhymes and cadences of its proverbs."—The New York Times (on Celestial Bodies)
"The estimable Marilyn Booth"—The New Yorker (on Girls of Riyadh)
ISBN: 9781649033901
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
292 pages