Awards

• Long-listed for DUBLIN Literary Award 2022
• Short-listed for Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize 2021
• Winner of International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2019

Overview

"""In an unnamed country torn apart by war, six strangers are compelled to share their darkest secrets. Taking pen to paper, each character attempts to put in writing what they can't bring themselves to say to the person they love – mother, father, brother, lost love. Their words form a chain of dark confessions, none of which reaches the intended recipient. Profound, troubling and deeply human, Voices of the Lost tells the moving story of characters living on the periphery, battling with displacement, devastating poverty and the demons within themselves. From one of today's most talented Arabic writers, Voices of the Lost is an urgent story of lives intimately woven together in a society that is tearing itself apart. """

Full Product Details

9781786077226

Table of Contents

Reviews

'An immensely talented novelist.' * Transfuge * 'In a style that is by turns precise and sumptuous, Hoda Barakat... tirelessly explores themes of metamorphosis, of madness, of countries left behind, and of journeys with no hope of return.' * Le Matricule des Anges * 'Hoda Barakat offers a penetrating insight into the minds of people whose inner lives are all too often dismissed without a second thought.' * L'Humanite * 'Anger, despair and passion are lyrically expressed...the beauty of her writing does nothing to detract from the candour of this narrative.' * Livres Hebdo * 'A short, deeply intense novel. A book of shadows which shows us the cracks threatening the modern Arab world.' * France Culture * 'A writer for our times: her prose is at once reflective and morally astute. Her novels possess a gravity in their confident, thoughtful style that bursts with tension and profound emotion.' * Mediapart * 'A subversive novel that examines sorrow, longing, violence, kindness, and compassion. The places may be named, but the protagonists are nameless. We love them because they are us.' -- Fady Joudah, author of Tethered to Stars 'Hoda Barakat is one of the most versatile and innovative novelists in the Arab world. Here, in a fugue of undelivered letters, she etches the portraits of a series of existential refugees, lost between countries, languages, and lives.' -- Marilyn Hacker, author of Blazons 'Drawing on the power of testimonial, Hoda Barakat's characters relate tales of loss, regret, and displacement. Beautifully written and filled with a raw, audacious honesty, these lost and found letters draw readers into an extraordinary embrace and refuse to let go.' -- Diana Abu-Jaber, author of Birds of Paradise 'Hoda Barakat's new novel reveals to us the many faces of power, war, love and despair as destinies mysteriously intersect, and all certainties are shaken. Through these letters, we glimpse the hidden story of immigration: characters condemned to suffer for nothing more than being born in the wrong place.' -- Jokha Alharthi, author of Celestial Bodies, winner of the Man Booker International Prize 'An astonishing novel, superbly translated from the original Arabic, in which grave, naked confessions are delivered by characters orbiting in motion. It is a fierce, challenging exploration of the extremities of rootlessness and desperation, rendered in a shocking clarity of voice.' -- Leila Aboulela, author of Bird Summons 'Spare and deep, Voices of the Lost captivates. Hoda Barakat is one of Lebanon's greatest gifts to literature, and Booth allows her English audience to explore this painful and irresistible present.' -- Amy Bloom, author of White Houses

'Anger, despair and passion are lyrically expressed...the beauty of her writing does nothing to detract from the candour of this narrative.' * <i>Livres Hebdo</i> * 'Hoda Barakat offers a penetrating insight into the minds of people whose inner lives are all too often dismissed without a second thought.' * <i>L'Humanite</i> * 'In a style that is by turns precise and sumptuous, Hoda Barakat... tirelessly explores themes of metamorphosis, of madness, of countries left behind, and of journeys with no hope of return.' * <i>Le Matricule des Anges</i> * 'An immensely talented novelist.' * <i>Transfuge</i> *

'An astonishing novel, superbly translated from the original Arabic, in which grave, naked confessions are delivered by characters orbiting in motion. It is a fierce, challenging exploration of the extremities of rootlessness and desperation, rendered in a shocking clarity of voice.' -- Leila Aboulela, author of Bird Summons 'An immensely talented novelist.' * Transfuge * 'In a style that is by turns precise and sumptuous, Hoda Barakat... tirelessly explores themes of metamorphosis, of madness, of countries left behind, and of journeys with no hope of return.' * Le Matricule des Anges * 'Hoda Barakat offers a penetrating insight into the minds of people whose inner lives are all too often dismissed without a second thought.' * L'Humanite * 'Anger, despair and passion are lyrically expressed...the beauty of her writing does nothing to detract from the candour of this narrative.' * Livres Hebdo * 'A short, deeply intense novel. A book of shadows which shows us the cracks threatening the modern Arab world.' * France Culture * 'A writer for our times: her prose is at once reflective and morally astute. Her novels possess a gravity in their confident, thoughtful style that bursts with tension and profound emotion.' * Mediapart *

'Hoda Barakat's new novel reveals to us the many faces of power, war, love and despair as destinies mysteriously intersect, and all certainties are shaken. Through these letters, we glimpse the hidden story of immigration: characters condemned to suffer for nothing more than being born in the wrong place.' -- Jokha Alharthi, author of Celestial Bodies, winner of the Man Booker International Prize 'An astonishing novel, superbly translated from the original Arabic, in which grave, naked confessions are delivered by characters orbiting in motion. It is a fierce, challenging exploration of the extremities of rootlessness and desperation, rendered in a shocking clarity of voice.' -- Leila Aboulela, author of Bird Summons 'An immensely talented novelist.' * Transfuge * 'In a style that is by turns precise and sumptuous, Hoda Barakat... tirelessly explores themes of metamorphosis, of madness, of countries left behind, and of journeys with no hope of return.' * Le Matricule des Anges * 'Hoda Barakat offers a penetrating insight into the minds of people whose inner lives are all too often dismissed without a second thought.' * L'Humanite * 'Anger, despair and passion are lyrically expressed...the beauty of her writing does nothing to detract from the candour of this narrative.' * Livres Hebdo * 'A short, deeply intense novel. A book of shadows which shows us the cracks threatening the modern Arab world.' * France Culture * 'A writer for our times: her prose is at once reflective and morally astute. Her novels possess a gravity in their confident, thoughtful style that bursts with tension and profound emotion.' * Mediapart *

Author Information

Hoda Barakat was born in Beirut in 1952. She studied French Literature at the Lebanese University and moved to Paris with her family in 1989. She has published five novels and two plays. Her novels have been translated into several languages and received numerous prestigious prize nominations. The Tiller of Waters (2000) was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature while her fifth novel, The Kingdom of This Earth, (2012) was longlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2013. In 2015, she was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize (at the time awarded in recognition of an author's body of work). She currently lives in France.

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