Overview

Teeming with Arabs, Indians, Somalis, Europeans, and others, Aden is like no other city in the world. A transcendent city. A city for all, no matter Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, or animist. And when “Michel,” a young Frenchman, washes ashore, fleeing his past in search of a new future, he’s immediately drawn into this intoxicating cocktail of dreamers, revolutionaries, artists, and politicians who have all found a place within the city’s vibrant atmosphere. Yet not all is as it seems. Monumental changes and forces are bearing down on Aden, threatening to erupt and refashion its identity, and redefine who can lay claim to the city that has always welcomed misfits. Adeni Incense interrogates concepts of belonging, identity, and who is entitled to speak for the whole. While set within a unique time period in Yemen’s history, the novel is timely today as the centrifugal forces of national chauvinism and parochialism seek to further entrench psychological borders between people. With its richly developed scenes and moving depiction of a society teetering on a precipice, Adeni Incense is a masterwork of storytelling, leaving the reader with indelible memories of beloved characters and uncertainty over the viability of pluralism and diversity.

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9781788710916

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Ali al-Muqri is a Yemeni author born in 1966. He has served as a cultural editor for several publications and is known for his bold literary work exploring religion, sexuality, and identity. Al-Muqri faced repeated campaigns of intimidation for his writings, particularly his books Wine and Nabīd in Islam (2007) and Hurmah (2012), which challenged traditional religious narratives. He left Yemen for France following the outbreak of war and was among those targeted by the Houthi regime, which confiscated his property. He is the author of more than ten books, including Black Taste, Black Smell (2008), The Handsome Jew (2009), Hurmah (2012), Adeni Incense (2014), and The Leader’s Country (2019). His novels have been longlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, and Hurmah’s French translation (Femme interdite) won the Prix de la Littérature Arabe in 2015. Adeni Incense was shortlisted for the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. His works have been translated into multiple languages, and in 2022, he was named a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government. Christiaan James is an American diplomat and literary translator. He holds a degree in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University and has lived and worked throughout the Middle East and North Africa, including Yemen, Tunisia, and Egypt. His first translation of Yemeni author Badr Ahmad’s Five Days Untold was longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness prize in 2022.

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