109 Mariam al-Ghafli – From the novel Daughter of the Rain, translated by William M Hutchins 114 Mohammed al-Mazrouei – Selected Poems, trans. John Peate 116 Mariam al-Saedi – Two short stories, trans. Ghenwa Hayek 121 Abdallah Abdulwahab – Selected Poems, trans. Fadhil al-Azzawi 124 Dhaen Shahine – Two Poems, trans. Robin Moger 126 Ahmed Rashid Thani – Selected Poems, trans. Raphael Cohen 132 Alice Johnson – Literary Salons and Book Clubs 134 Ibrahim al-Mullah – Selected Poems, trans. Robin Moger 137 Nasser al-Dhaheri – The Stone of Desire, trans. Reem Ghanyem 138 Ebtisam al-Mualla – A Fading Light, a short story, translated by

Sophia Vasalou 147 Dhabiya Khamis – A Travelling Tale – From the novel Life As It Is,

translated by Charis Bredin 155 GUEST LITERATURE 3 GERMANY 156 Hinrich von Haaren –Slow Tree of Joy, a short story trans. the author 161 Annika Scheffel – Pretty Big, a short story translated by Stefan Tobler 167 Elke Schmitter – From the novel Minor Misdemeanours, translated by Rachel McNicholl 172 Ulf Stolterfoht – Selected Poems, translated by Ken Cockburn 177 Volker Kaminski – The Top Project, a short story translated by Katy

Derbyshire 184 Thomas Lehr – From the novel September: Fata Morgana, translated by Katy Derbyshire 191 Antonia Baum – From the novel Completely Lifeless, Preferably Dead,

translated by Simon Pare 198 Joachim Sartorius – An excerpt from Princes' Islands, translated by

Stephen Brown BOOK REVIEWS 206 Alice Johnson: In a Fertile Desert. Modern Writing from the United

Arab Emirates, selected, translated and introduced by Denys Johnson-Davies 208 Margaret Obank: My Early Days, by Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad al-Qasimi. 210 Norbert Hirschhorn: Two Libyan Novels – Homeless Rats by Ahmed

Fagih and Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar 214 Susannah Tarbush: One Day in April by Jad El Hage 217 BOOKS IN BRIEF – Fiction, Poetry, Journal and Non-Fiction 222 CONTRIBUTORS

LAST PAGE 224 Najwa Binshatwan – Letter from Benghazi

Banipal, founded in 1998, takes its name from Ashurbanipal, last great king of Assyria and patron of the ar ts, whose outstanding achievement was to assemble in Nineveh, from all over his empire, the fir st systematically organised librar y in the ancient Middle East. The thousands of clay tablets of Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian writings included the famous Mesopotamian epics of the Creation, the Flood, and Gilgamesh, many folk tales, fables, proverbs, prayers and omen texts.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica

Banipal is pleased to support the Cystic Fibrosis Trust with free promotion – see page 4

BANIPAL 42 – AUTUMN-WINTER 2011 3