Beginnings

Tariq Shamma

This novel abandons the prevailing chronological framework of beginnings and endings. Syrian writer and academic Tariq Shamma takes the reader into the labyrinths of writing and its open possibilities. The protagonist, Adel, embarks on writing to escape loss, but this arduous process only leads to numerous drafts, through which he attempts to escape the crushing silence that has cast a shadow over his life.
It's as if, when he bid farewell to Widad, he tried to reinvent her in these pages. Loss can only be filled with words, or perhaps temporarily dispelled by them. Does the writer maintain a firm grip on the course of events and the lives of his characters? Or does the plot exceed his ability to control it, leading it in every direction except the one he had previously decided upon or assumed?
We follow the chapters of a story from which stories are born and intertwined, as if it were a continuous writing exercise. Between Adel and Laila Salem, there is more than one relationship between a writer and a character who rebels against him, more than one relationship between a viewer and an actress, or a doctor and his patient. The more he tries to discover or reach her, the more his ignorance of her increases, and the more he tries to lead her to a fate, the more she skillfully escapes him, thus altering the events of the novel.