- Description
At this urgent time of crisis, McSweeney’s 76: Aftershocks presents a collection of contemporary Syrian prose—short stories, novel excerpts, and plays—that chronicles the literal and metaphorical earthquakes that haunt the Syrian people.
Guest-edited by acclaimed Syrian American journalist Alia Malek, and encompassing the work of eight Arabic translators and sixteen Syrian writers (some of which have never before been translated in English), these contributors write across diasporic and refugee experiences, as well as from inside present-day Syria.
In these pages, skeletons fall in love, Damascus alleys become time portals, letters tucked in bullet wounds reanimate the dead, minarets gush blood, and photographs become more human than humans. The requisite actors in these stories, and in any conflict (and crime)—victim, killer, survivor—are blurred and intimate. Magical realism, the absurd, and the surreal course through these pages.
These stories ask us to imagine the unimaginable. They ask not “what is real?” but rather “how can this be real?”
Featuring original work and translations by:
- Rasha Abbas
- Fadwa Al-Abboud
- Ghada Alatrash
- Mustafa Taj Aldeen Almosa
- Khalil Alrez
- Mohammad Al Attar
- Fadi Azzam
- Marilyn Booth
- Jan Dost
- Sasha Fletcher
- Rabab Haidar
- Katharine Halls
- Maha Hassan
- Alice Holttum
- Sawad Hussain
- Elisabeth Jaquette
- Omar Al Jbaai
- Margaret Litvin
- Alia Malek
- Ahmed Naji
- Ibrahim Samu’il
- Somar Shehadeh
- Rawaa Sonbol
- Zakaria Tamer
- Maisaa Tanjour
- Dima Wannous
- Mary Williams
- Odai Al Zoubi
Ever changing, each issue of the quarterly is completely redesigned (there have been hardcovers and paperbacks, an issue with two spines, an issue with a magnetic binding, an issue that looked like a bundle of junk mail, and an issue that looked like a sweaty human head), but always brings you the very best in new literary fiction.
About McSweeney's Quarterly:
Ever changing, each issue of the quarterly is completely redesigned (there have been hardcovers and paperbacks, an issue with two spines, an issue with a magnetic binding, an issue that looked like a bundle of junk mail, and an issue that looked like a sweaty human head), but always brings you the very best in new literary fiction.
Editors: Dave Eggers / Rita Bullwinkel / Alia Malek
Publisher: McSweeney's Books
Pages: 280pp
Size: 5.25 x 7.5
Notes: paperback
Release Date: December 12, 2024
ISBN: 978-1963270044