ABDELKADER BENALI

WINNER OF THE GEERTJAN LUBBERHUIZEN, LIBRIS & PREMIER ROMAN ETRANGER PRIZE

MARATHON RUNNER

Benali had always jogged and cycled as a student but as his literary career took off, he was leaving running behind. Somewhere in his mind and muscles the memory of long distance running remained and in 2005 he decided to become a marathon runner alongside being a writer. This book recounts his journey and is the literary imagining of what it is to be a long-distance runner. He says “The marathon is the only religion that doesn’t include resurrection. Salvation lies in the moment you cross the finish line, after which the marathon lies forever behind you. While the journey lasts, I don’t have to think about the future, of the photos of myself I will later receive (those strange shorts, those two legs hanging in the air, that contorted face which has long since lost its serenity); the gutter smell rising from the side of the road, the bills I have to pay and the arguments I still have to conduct to regain my freedom, the fiction character I had decided I would bring to life, the things others want from me.”

Material: Finished copies (144 pages)
Sales: Arbeiderspers NL

REPORTS FROM A BESEIGED CITY

When Benali arrived in Beirut on 7 June 2006 he had no idea a war was about to start. He had wanted to live in an Arabic country and learn Arabic and perhaps one day write a book about it. Then war broke out and unlike most others he elected to stay. He ended up writing a weblog for Vrij Nederland about his day to day experiences (edited and collected together in this volume). Reluctantly he was writing that book about the Arab world. This is an intimate, revealing and insightful report of those anxious and liberating days, which in the beauty of its prose and in its relevance is timeless.

Material: Finished copies (125 pages) and English sample.
Sales: Arbeiderspers NL; serialisation in English in The Drawbridge Magazine


MAXIME FELDMAN AND I

MAY THE SUN SHINE TOMORROW (LAAT HET MORGEN MOOI WEER ZIJN)

'So yes, it's obvious, Abdelkader Benali belongs without doubt to the great Dutch authors.'Financieel Dagblad 'His new novel is sublime.'GDP '...a fascinating novel...we actually really need a writer like Benali.'HP de Tijd Malik Ben is at a turning point in his life. Though his career is flourishing, he feels the need for a change. Before taking this momentous step, however, he thinks back to 1995, the year his father sent him on a cruise that changed his life forever.Malik, the son of political refugees, grew up in the Netherlands, where he was torn between a demanding mother, who railed against the dictatorial regime of her homeland, and an opportunistic father, who embraced the capitalist way of life—especially the fun it had to offer.

After his mother’s death, Malik finds himself aboard the S.S. Latina, whose faded glory serves as a backdrop to a shipboard romance with an elderly, elegant and witty Spanish widow. Carmen Lopez de la Madrid seduces him and tells him her story, which takes him back to the dark days of the Spanish Civil War.

Carmen also fled her country. Unlike Malik’s father, however, who left because he was an informer, Carmen had been smuggled out of Franco’s Spain with the help of a handsome but mysterious Moor. Unfortunately, the Moor failed to keep his promise to locate her long-lost brother, a soldier in Franco’s army. Now, after all these years, she sets off on a special mission: to find her brother in Tangier.

Thanks to her journey and her story, not to mention their affair, Malik gains insight into himself, his parents, his roots and the world around him. When he finally pays a visit to the North African country his parents left behind, his perspective on life and death undergoes a dramatic change. By the end of the cruise, the S.S. Latina has worked its magic: Malik’s memories, his parents’ secrets and Carmen’s tales have been turned into a spellbinding adventure.

Material: Dutch and Italian editions (239 pages), English sample
Sales: De Arbeiderspers NL (original publisher); Fazi Italy.
Option publishers: Actes Sud France; Randomhouse Mondadori Spain; Teorema Portugal.

THE LONG-AWAITED (DE LANGVERWACHTE)
Winner of the Libris Prize

A second novel by the author of the internationally acclaimed WEDDING BY THE SEA. '...an extraordinarily rich novel.' De Telegraaf 'It's this gift that compels me to come out, with a glance at the clock and a glance at the road I'll have to travel, the people I'll have to meet, introduce, and then like an infallible sharpshooter clear out of the way again, however dear they are to me; people I must allow to get older, to grow, so that I myself can stay young for ever. And so it is that we go on our way, the gift and me.' The Long-Awaited is an unborn child on New Year’s Eve, who, narrating from the womb of his young mother, Diana Doorn, observes his family assemble to witness his birth. His father is Mehdi Ajoeb, son of Driss Ajoeb, erstwhile butcher and a man pathologically incapable of passing his driving test, and Malika, the tea-addict. The child tells of how Mehdi’s secret love for Diana is revealed one hallucinogenic night: the moment of his conception.

THE LONG-AWAITED is a family story in which characters interfere and interact with one another, and successive generations dispute their differences. A literary roller-coaster in which belief and disbelief follow each other as night follows day, this is a light-footed tale about wedding dresses that refuse to get married, an unsellable butcher’s shop that is somehow sold all the same, and the narrator’s godfather, a man who can only fall asleep after he has seen fireworks.

Material: Dutch and Italian editions, French translation, English sample.
Sales: Vassallucci NL; Randomhouse Mondadori Spain; Fazi Editore Italy; Actes Sud France

'THE LONG AWAITED is a book to read carefully. Not only to be able to follow the who, where and why but to do justice to Benali's prose. The book shines with love for language itself; every sentence is carefully constructed, every word seems thought about…. THE LONG AWAITED reads like an eternal fairytale; about how people are formed, how coincidences and impulsive choices can decide fate, about how people can get to know each other in magical ways or lose each other in equally extraordinary ways.' Spitz

'This is how it must be in Abdelkader Benali's workroom: on his writing table the main characters perform their lives. Like actors whom you no longer have to teach anything, who give form to every emotion with sensitivity and detail…. THE LONG AWAITED is a beautiful atmospheric family saga. And in particular a novel which right up and till the surprising end is concerned with language… Abdelkader Benali scores on all fronts. THE LONG AWAITED is about love, about the rules and traditions of islam, dreams of the future, weddings that are not arranged, insecurity, homesickness, being aware of your roots and two cultures on one pillow. But also about trivialities such as taking your driving licence 34 times and suffering 868 interventions from the instructor. Father Driss Ajoeb is depicted this way with gentle humour… Benali gives the reader the impression that the author is always present. He plays with a dreamy sort of realism, in which reality has to give in to fantasy once in a while to become a fairytale. This is all possible in Theatre Benali.' Algemeen Dagblad

'In 1979 K. Schippers published the novel FIRST IMPRESSIONS with as a subtitle MEMORIES OF A THREE YEAR OLD. From that moment it is possible, is what men say. From that moment you start remembering things … Going back further seemed impossible. But Benali has managed this little marvel: he gives a voice to the little girl who is still in the womb of her Dutch mother, and with the help of her thumb and sparkling art of observation finds out into which kind of world she will come. By listening, rebelling, combining and deducing she reveals the histories of her mother and her Moroccan father Mehdi Ajoeb. Only when she has talked everyone together is the time ready for birth… With a real sense of the symbolic Benali has the birth happen at the watershed of the twentieth and the twentyfirst centuries: the child that brings this story together, is a daughter of our time. She has to gather her own roots… [The characters] are all in their own way uprooted, but in this wonderful book they are integrated in a big story, a colourful carpet that the energetic optimist Benali rolls out before the reader… The vitality and freedom that shines out from Benali, make his second novel great. Many writers think of their book as a child. In this special case it is literally so. It has become an extraordinary child. I'm curious as to how the proud father will nameher, and what her next initial impressions will be. With such a spiritual father, and full of such festive storytelling pleasure, she will definitely be ready at 3 years old to write a fine trilogy to add to this powerful prologue. De Schippers-child has finally gained a friend.' Arjan Peters, de Volkskrant

WEDDING BY THE SEA (BRUILOFT AAN ZEE)

Winner of the Libris Prize, WEDDING BY THE SEA has been internationally praised. It won the Geertjan Lubberhuizen Prize for best first novel and the prestigious Prix de Meilleur Premier Roman Etranger in France.

'Vivid, mythic and heartfelt ... A tale of origins real and imagined, which, while it speaks of the departure, reaches always for the moment of return.' Financial Times 'Behind the marvellous and often farcical humour of this book is a frequently moving and arresting pathos, which juxtaposes two continents and the borderline places of their rendezvous with an uncommon skill and insight.' Chris Searle, Tribune 'Full of verve and hilarity, .. WEDDING BY THE SEA keeps you smiling on every page… Benali’s flair for story-telling is non-stop … He never pauses for breath.' Le Soir 'He chews on each word, he savours them with gusto. This comes through throughout – sparks of joy fly off.' NRC Handelsblad

Material: many editions (160 pages)

Published by Vassallucci NL; Weidenfeld & Nicholson UK; Arcade US; Kedros Greece; Fremad Denmark; Albin Michel France; Piper Verlag Germany; Randomhouse Mondadori Spain; Teorema Portugal; Marcos y Marcos Italy; Babel Israel; Det Norske Samlaget Norway; Kronta Lithuania; Laguna Serbia; Fennec World Arabic; Sandesh Bangladesh

ABDELKADER BENALI (1975) was born in Ighazzazen, Morocco, and has lived in The Netherlands since 1979. He studied history in Leiden and now lives in Amsterdam. As well as WEDDING BY THE SEA and THE LONG-AWAITED, Benali has also written the very successful theatre plays THE UNLUCKY ONE and YASSER, and published the story collection REPORTS FROM MAANZAAD TOWN. www.abdelkaderbenali.nl