Dar Maqam has recently released ‘Amarji’, a new novel by Saudi author Yasser Abdulaziz Al-Ghaslan. The 333-page novel is the first of its kind for the United States-based writer.
The novel inspired its name from a Sumerian world, which indicates that the idea of freedom has existed since Sumerians invented writing.
The story of the novel takes place in Saudi Arabia between 1975 and 2009, and explores critical events in the Kingdom, the Arab region, and the world. The most prominent among these events are the assassination of King Faisal, the Great Mosque Seizure, the emergence of Islamic awakening, the invasion of Kuwait, the September 11 attacks in 2001, the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and all the terrorist assaults in Saudi Arabia until 2009.
The novel also covers different places including Kuwait, Egypt, and Iraq, shedding lights on linked causes that marked that period like sectarianism, tribalism, conservatism, social opportunism, terrorism, and opposition.
“It’s a vivid and thrilling narration based on a flow of ideas, emotions, and shifting political and social events that involuntarily lead the characters to different fates,” wrote Critic Ihsan al-Khalidi on the back cover of the novel.
Al-Ghaslan has three other works that focus on politics, media, and society: ‘Media.com’ by Dar Riad Dar Al Rayes, ‘Back Forward’ by Arab Scientific Publishers, and ‘Triangle Corners” by Difaf Publishing.
