Menstruation

Amarji The Website of Syrian Author Ammar Abdulhamid

Menstruation

Introduction

The novel was written in February, 1998 and was published in 2001 by Al-Saqi Books in London. It is, thus, my third novel, but my first to be published by a well-established publishing house. The people of Al-Saqi, then, gave me my first real break. With it, I finally became comfortable with the title of "author" that has long been bestowed upon me by friends and acquaintances familiar with my work. For this, I will forever be in debt to the editors and staff of Al-Saqi Books. I had never expected that my first real break will come from a publishing house run by fellow Arabs, simply because I thought they would be too afraid to tackle my kind of writings.

Still, I was never really happy with the editor’s decision to remove the final chapter of the novel, deeming it somewhat of an unnecessary manifesto that is not as literary compelling as the preceding chapters. I chose not to belabor the point at that time for the simple reason that I did not want to waste my first opportunity to be finally published. I also did not want to change anything in the Final Chapter (titled: The Conference), because, for me, it worked well the way it was written. So, I decided to go ahead with the editor’s choice and accepted the deletion of the chapter, knowing that one day I will be able to get my say in this matter. And here I am doing just that.

Despite low sale figures in London, and a lack of reviews, good or bad, in English press, the novel, thanks to the tireless efforts of Al-Saqi Books’ wonderful and dedicated team, and those of their marketing agent, managed to attract the attention of many international publishers. As a result, Menstruation has been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch and Japanese.

The novel was my first work to stray away from the straight first-person narration, and where I attempted to express myself using the third-person. The unusual structure came to me as I proceeded along, it was not pre-conceived. Each novel of mine simply dictates its particular style, it seems.

Menstruation, the Final Chapter: The Conference

PS. Reviews of Menstruation can be checked at the Reviews&Interviews section.

lust

for

salvation,

Brother,

though

were

woman,

and

man.

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