Arab Booker Prize Winner

The latest news sparkled with the annnouncement of the Winner of 'Arab Booker Prize' for literature 2010. There is no suspense. Abdo Khal, a brilliant Saudi author, is the panel's unanimous and expert choice for "the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab world". He writes from a personal perspective but makes ample use of the deep and centuries-old Arab experience.

A novel is a product of imagination, but it presents certain human issues in clear focus. Since there is no  predicament worse than the starvation of imagination, people's hunger for fiction and recreation must be accounted for and fed. No minds survive in a vacuum, and chances of undeprived creativity are an eternal and natural source of sweetness and light. All happiness, angelic and blissful, depends on the celebration of it.

As a matter of fact, a fictional account grants this freedom to indulge in extravagant dreams of fulfillment of desires and expectations. This silent excercise in freedom of choice resulting in expressive protrayal of life around secures the release of pent-up feelings and engenders cultural refreshment. It not only helps evolve popular understanding and perception but also gradually cements loyalty to leadership.


In a way, the prize-winning author asserts this faith in the deep and interactive relationship between the state and the individual in his novel, 'Spewing Sparks as Big as Castles'. He feels awkward and gets repelled by futile "double-standards". The novel is set in Jeddah, where Tarek, his young hero, comes to work leaving his poor village background behind. He has had his greedy ambitions of becoming glamorously rich, and so finds employment in a palace of the affluent.

The title of the novel is a Quranic reference to hell. The writer employes dark satire and symbolism, and depicts the dangerous influence of power and wealth that leads to repression, cruelty and agony in the society.  Dreams of wealth are not real but seductive; it weakens the moral fibre and imperils spiritual life. Both, the owner of the palace and his servant, are equally enmeshed in arrogance and ugliness.

It's a "terrifying" novel, Taleb Alrefai, a Kuwaiti writer and the chair of the judges' panel, declared. Being the first from the Gulf to be honored with the Prize, Khal, who was born in Al Majanah in 1962 in Jazan, said it was a quite unexpected win. However, it is true that he was selected from the five short-listed to bag a prize worth 60,000 USD without any lobby to back him. The total entries for this contest were 113 novels from 17 countries.

IPAF ( International Prize for Arabic Fiction ) was instituted in 2007 as a joint venture between the Emirates Foundation, Abu Dhabi and the Booker Prize Foundation, London. The goal was to encourage, promote and sustain the growth of Arabic Literature, and ensure its popularity globally. The winners of the prize were internationally recognized and their works translated into many languages.

Any lengthy fictional narration has its impact on the society and ultimately it paves way for the betterment of the people and their living environment. The prize is an acclamation of the Arab ethnicity and unity, an avowal of its unique cultural heritage, and an assurance of intellectual growth and distinction. It is highly noteworthy that the prominent Arab presence is globally being sanctified as congenial to the development of harmonious cultural ties. Literature from the indigenous culture creates and projects a perfect Arab image to the international community.


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