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WINNER OF THE NAGUIB MAHFOUZ MEDAL FOR LITERATURE ~ WINNER OF THE KATARA PRIZE FOR ARABIC FICTION
A stunning and luminous novel of modern Lebanon, a deeply human portrayal of men and women longing for change
“This novel transcends the limits of its own setting in space and time to unveil a general human reality for those of us in contemporary society who live in cities that stifle souls and kill dreams.”—Sarah Enany, translator of The Girl with Braided Hair
In Lebanon’s coastal city of Tyre, Sultan was raised by the sea, under the shade of ficus trees. But it is not an idyllic life. He lives in the cemetery, born into a family who hold the unique profession of announcing a person’s death through a loudspeaker around town. Sultan longs to escape the dark shadow cast by this existence, longs not to follow in his father’s footsteps, but finds himself trapped between the cemetery and the sea.
Sultan is not alone in his desire for escape: His best friend loads his family onto a small boat and takes the treacherous journey to Europe; another friend joins an armed militia. Meanwhile, Sultan begins an ill-fated romance with an upper-class girl he meets at a book club, and she encourages him to emigrate to Canada.
Through Sultan and those closest to him, Mohammed Tarazi traces the collapse caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the devastating Beirut Port explosion, and the crushing weight of decay and corruption on those seeking simply to live ordinary lives. Achingly painful and beautifully crafted, City of the Silenced cuts into the most basic human need to survive: to find hope and reach for a better future.
“In gripping, absorbing, and profound tones, City of the Silenced makes a powerful, complex statement about the cost of politics for the ordinary Arab citizen today.”—Youssef Rakha, author of The Dissenters
“This is a powerful work, one which stays with the reader long after the final page has been turned.”—Kay Heikkinen, translator of Granada: The Complete Trilogy
“This novel transcends the limits of its own setting in space and time to unveil a general human reality for those of us in contemporary society who live in cities that stifle souls and kill dreams.”—Sarah Enany, translator of The Girl with Braided Hair
“Every character in this beautiful, elegiac work, shattering and calamitous as it is, represents one or another facet of their country. Whoever reads City of the Silenced will share their emotional pain and heartrending sorrow, but will also have the opportunity to see them prove that life and love are stronger than all barriers, real and imagined.”—Ahmed Taibaoui, author of The Disappearance of Mr. Nobody
Mohammed Tarazi is a Lebanese novelist. His novels in Arabic have won and been shortlisted for numerous prizes including the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, the Ghassan Kanafani Prize for Fiction, the Tawfiq Bakkar Prize, and the Radwa Ashour Award for Arabic Literature. This novel, originally published in Arabic as Mikrufun katim sawt (Muted Microphone), won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature and the Katara Prize for Arabic Fiction, and is his English-language debut. He lives in South Sudan.
Jonathan Wright is an award-winning translator. His numerous translations from the Arabic include Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad (shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize), Hassan Blasim’s The Corpse Exhibition (winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize), Sinan Antoon’s The Book of Collateral Damage, and Ahmed Taibaoui’s The Disappearance of Mr. Nobody (winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature.) He lives in London.