The weepers

Author's name: Aqil Al-Moussawi

She felt him with her feminine instinct, coming and going between the library and the classroom, and she glimpsed in his eyes a ravishing look, the same looks Gatsby directed at his beloved Daisy in *The Great Gatsby*. She knew he was Arab, and imagined him a descendant of bygone sultans, and the notch in his upper front tooth suggested a history of mischief. She deliberately laughed close to him to arouse his interest, and he would be eager to say something, then hold back, biting his tongue. She enjoyed his company as a diversion, and when he failed to say anything, she felt irritated, sometimes humiliated, and she struggled with her premonitions, even hating him, to the point that she thought of a way to humiliate him.

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It's not a historical novel, and perhaps even anti-historical. Yet, it is grounded in history, in a distant tragic history that has become a daily occurrence due to its overabundance. It is a novel in which the tragedy of blood and the gushing of tears intertwine with overwhelming romantic love. Its events spring from the heart of old Manama, from its rich memory, and from the lives of its people, their dreams, frustrations, and struggles. It is a novel brimming with characters whose familiarity makes you feel like you know them all. It is rich in social, political, and ritual details, and is concerned with the story of a very traditional society that suddenly explodes in the wake of a religious revolution erupting nearby. Time in the novel moves back and forth between past and present, between politics and society, between religious ritual and love, weaving together the destinies of three generations with disparate ideas, passions, and orientations. Generations that differ in everything, united only by weeping and fast-flowing tears.

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