DUBAI: Egyptian Canadian writer Omar El-Akkad and Lebanese novelist Rabih Alameddine were among the major honorees at this year’s National Book Awards in the US.
El-Akkad was recognized in the non-fiction category, while Alameddine earned the fiction award.
Alameddine earned the fiction award. (AFP)
The National Book Awards — established in 1936 and often considered the Oscars of the publishing world — are presented by the National Book Foundation, a non-profit known for spotlighting works that challenge or reflect on the social and political moment.
El-Akkad’s winning book, “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” is his first non-fiction project.
El-Akkad’s winning book, “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” is his first non-fiction project. (Supplied)
The book looks at how many people in the West have become increasingly disconnected from the political and moral framework their societies promote.
Beginning with El-Akkad’s viral tweet during the early weeks of Israel’s war on Gaza, it reflects on shifting public confidence in Western institutions and global leadership.
Drawing on his own experience as an immigrant and journalist, El-Akkad traces how views of the Western-led world order have evolved over time.
According to The Associated Press, El-Akkad said it was “very difficult to think in celebratory terms about a book that was written in response to a genocide (in Gaza). It’s difficult to think in celebratory terms when I spent two years seeing what shrapnel does to a child’s body.”
“The True True Story of Raja the Gullible” is by Rabih Alameddine. (Supplied)
According to AP, Alameddine’s awards speech, like his novel, combined humor and agony. He began with a lament for the bombing of a Palestinian refugee camp.
But went on to joke about the demands of his agent, Nicole Aragi, and thanked everyone from his gastrointestinal doctor to the “psychiatrist who has been telling me to get over myself for more than 20 years.”
His novel, “The True True Story of Raja the Gullible,” follows Raja, a 63-year-old philosophy teacher living in a small Beirut apartment with his elderly mother, Zalfa. While Raja values solitude, books and routine, his mother insists on involving herself in every part of his life.
When he is offered a fully funded writing residency in the US, the opportunity arrives after a series of difficult personal and national events. As he prepares to leave, Raja is forced to confront the memories and past experiences he had hoped to escape.
Spanning six decades, through Raja’s distinctive voice the story explores his life, relationships and the moments that shaped him.
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