21. Successful Strikes. 2. Christmas -- 3. Um Al-Ghayth -- 4. Dead Man's Hand -- 5. My Country, My Love -- 6. The Night the Building Collapsed -- 7. The Octopus -- 8. A Mother's Final Words -- 9. Precious Stones -- 10. Fainting -- 11. An Incident in Town -- 12. The Strangest Thing That Happened to me in 2010 -- 13. Sitt Najmiyyah's House -- 14. Gun License -- 15. A Bed for the King's Daughter -- 16. Wishing Tree -- 17. Greek Discussions -- 18. Environmental Safety -- 19. Lilith -- 20. Kind Hearts -- 21. Successful Strikes.
Summary:
A groundbreaking collection of experimental short fiction by award-winning Syrian author and Booker International Prize for Arabic Fiction nominee Shahla Ujayli, A Bed for the King's Daughter uses surrealism and irony to examine such themes as women's agency, the decline of collective life and imagination under modernity, and the effects of social and political corruption on daily life. In "The Memoir of Cinderella's Shoes" Cinderella uses her famous glass slipper as a weapon in order to take justice into her own hands. In "Tell Me About Surrealism", an art history professor's writing assignment reveals the slipperiness of storytelling, and in "Merry Christmas", the realities of apartheid interfere with one family's celebration. Through twenty-two short stories, Ujayli animates with brevity and inventiveness themes relevant to both the particularities of life in the Arab world and life outside it.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.