eleven

Author's name: Ahmed Al-Qarmlawi

In his latest novel, "The Eleven," Ahmed Al-Qarmlawi creates an amazing world that begins with reality but quickly takes us to a time of myth.
Its hero is a writer who begins to write a play inspired by the story of Diana, Jacob's daughter, who leaves the desert and travels to the city of Shechem, only to be kidnapped and imprisoned in the royal palace.
Then we are surprised to find that someone is writing the same story in a novelistic format, and is creative in describing Dina's eleven brothers, as they go out in search of her and seek revenge for their stolen honor.
Through this elusive format, and a story that derives its roots from the seventeenth century BC, Al-Qarmlawi presents us with a text in which myth blends with reality, and novel with play; a text that does not give itself away easily, but guarantees the pleasure of reading epic texts.