Ibrahim al-Koni


Ibrāhīm al-Kōnī is a Libyan writer and is considered to be one of the most prolific Arab novelists.

Biography

Born in 1948 in the Fezzan Region, Ghadamis City, Ibrahim al-Koni was brought up in the traditions of the Tuareg, people, who are popularly known as "the veiled men" or "the blue men." Mythological elements, spiritual quests and existential questions mingle in the writings of al-Koni, who has been "hailed as a magical realist, a Sufi fabulist, and a poetic novelist."
He spent his childhood in the desert and learned to read and write Arabic when he was twelve. Al-Koni studied literature and journalism at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow and worked as a journalist in Moscow and Warsaw. He moved to Switzerland in 1993 and was living there as of 2011.

Works

By 2007, Kuni had published more than 80 books and received numerous awards. His books have been translated from their original Arabic into 35 languages. He won the Mohamed Zafzaf Prize for the Arab Novel in 2005, and in 2008 he won the Sheikh Zayed Award for Literature. In 2015, Kuni was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize.

Selected bibliography

  • التبر . Gold Dust, trans. Elliott Colla
  • نزيف الحجر . The Bleeding of the Stone, trans. and Christopher Tingley
  • المجوس . The Fetishists, trans. William M. Hutchins
  • New Waw / Oasis Trilogy:
  • * واو الصغرى . New Waw: Saharan Oasis, trans. William M. Hutchins
  • * الدمية . The Puppet, trans. William M. Hutchins
  • * الفزاعة . The Scarecrow, trans. William M. Hutchins
  • البحث عن المكان الضائع . The Seven Veils of Seth, trans. William M. Hutchins
  • أنوبيس . Anubis: A Desert Novel, trans. William M. Hutchins
  • كلمة الليل في حق النهار . The Night Will Have Its Say, trans. Nancy Roberts

    Compilations in English

  • A Sleepless Eye: Aphorisms from the Sahara, ed. Hartmut Fähndrich, trans. Roger Allen

    Awards and honours

  • 2005: Mohamed Zafzaf Prize for the Arab Novel
  • 2006: Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
  • 2008: Sheikh Zayed Book Award
  • 2015: Shortlisted for Man Booker International Prize