Awrah Nearby

Amir Tag Elsir

"With captivating narration, shocking language, and scathing criticism, Amir Tag Elsir tells his novel, brimming with stories from the Sudanese countryside, bringing to light the social features and customs that shape it: the gossip fueled by the bond of deceit - the village women tasked with arranging marriages, to titles and scandals, impulsiveness and sexual repression, the glorification of officials, the temperaments of politicians, the extremes of wealth and poverty, daily seditions, envy and invasion of privacy, anger, resentment and impudence, and internal strife represented by two tribes that fought for ages over an acre.

"Dog of Freedom," the truck driver between the village and the city who has dreamed since childhood of being a nakedness!, and "Shakhir Suwar," the village beggar and retired charlatan who reveals secrets and breaks spells, and "Shuaib Al-Takruri," the magic seller looking for a clown, and "Dawoud Aqra'," the village scholar with the theory: it is forbidden to strike the dead... These and others, social, political, and religious figures... inspired by the heart of Sudanese reality, the writer penetrates their depths, exposing their truths and stripping them of their masks.

In his narration, full of black humor, the author mentions historical events such as military incidents and wars against the English colonizer during the days of Al-Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad bin Abdullah bin Fahl, the leader of the Mahdist Revolution, and the famine of "the year six" in 1888... He also monitors the country's transition to "modernization" and "openness" through the cultural influences from abroad that reach the rural areas from the cities, such as trendy music groups, girls' liberation, hippie fashion and hairstyles... as well as changes in transportation, and the most famous perfumes and songs...

Awrah Nearby is an enjoyable unveiling of the nakedness of a bitter reality.

Amir Tag Elsir — a Sudanese novelist who works as a doctor. He won the Katara Prize for Arabic Novel in its first session in 2015 for "366," and some of his titles reached the long and short lists of Arab literary awards such as the Booker and Sheikh Zayed, and international awards such as the International Prize for Translated Literature (in 2017 with his novel "The French Perfume," and in 2018 with his novel "Ebola 76"). His works have been translated into several languages, including English, French, Italian, Spanish, Persian, and Chinese. Published by Nofal: "A Painful Part of a Story" (2018), "Tachycardia" (2019) which reached the long list of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award (2019-2020 session), "Biography of Pain" (new edition, 2019), "Anger and Kandakas" (2020), and "Guardians of Sadness" (2022). His novels have been included in Emirati, British, and Moroccan secondary school curricula.

Amir is a great writer who writes with an adventurous spirit, and the core of his writing is the poet within him," Ibrahim Daoud, Egyptian writer and poet.