The Killing of the Big Man

Author: Ibrahim Essa

In a detective literary style, Ibrahim Essa explores the mysterious assassination of the president and how power was transferred to another person, circumventing and deceiving the will of the people. This novel was written in 1999. Ibrahim Essa states that it was linked to specific circumstances, including the death of his mother, the ban on Al-Dustour newspaper in 1998, and his trip to America to stay with a friend. There, he wrote every day from 9 AM to 1 PM and from 5 PM to 9 PM for 35 days. No publishing house at that time was enthusiastic about publishing the novel because his name was banned from newspapers, he was not allowed to write, and he was prohibited from issuing any newspaper at that time. So, he published the novel at his own expense and contracted with a major journalistic institution to distribute it. He waited for the first and then the second week for the novel to be distributed, but it wasn't. He learned from the distribution manager that State Security had visited the journalistic institution because of his novel and it had been confiscated. He requested a copy of the confiscation order. They informed him that there was no official document: the novel was banned and confiscated, plain and simple. He then asked the journalistic institution to retrieve the three thousand copies of the novel so he could distribute them himself. He was informed that they did not have any copies of the novel! After 48 hours, the chairman of the journalistic institution's board of directors asked him to come and collect a sum of money in exchange for the sale of all copies of his novel! This decision was a way out for the institution from the predicament of confiscation and the author's demand for his copies. Thus, "The Killing of the Big Man" became the novel from which Ibrahim Essa earned the most in his life, as all its copies were sold within 3 hours!