An Unnecessary Woman

An obsessive introvert in Beirut, eschewed by her family and neighbors for her divorced status and lack of religious reverence, quietly translates favorite books into Arabic while struggling with her aging body, until an unthinkable disaster threatens what little life remains to her.

Autorentext
Rabih Alameddine is the author of the novels Koolaids, I, the Divine, and The Hakawati, and the story collection The Perv.


Klappentext
"Aaliya Sohbi lives alone in her Beirut apartment, surrounded by stockpiles of books. Godless, fatherless, childless, and divorced, Aaliya is her family's 'unnecessary appendage.' Every year, she translates a new favorite book into Arabic, then stows it away. The thirty-seven books that Aaliya has translated over her lifetime have never been read-- by anyone. After overhearing her neighbors, 'the three witches,' discussing her too-white hair, Aaliya accidentally dyes her hair too blue. In this breathtaking portrait of a reclusive woman's late-life crisis, readers follow Aaliya's digressive mind as it ricochets across visions of past and present Beirut. Colorful musings on literature, philosophy, and art are invaded by memories of the Lebanese Civil War and Aaliya's own volatile past. As she tries to overcome her aging body and spontaneous emotional upwellings, Aaliya is faced with an unthinkable disaster that threatens to shatter the little life she has left"

Zusammenfassung
Finalist for the National Book Award

Washington Post Top 50 Fiction Books of 2014; Kirkus Best Books of 2014; NPR Best Books of 2014; Amazon 100 Best Books of 2014; The Christian Science Monitor Top 10 Fiction Books of 2014

Praise for AN UNNECESSARY WOMAN

An Unnecessary Woman is a meditation on, among other things, aging, politics, literature, loneliness, grief and resilience. If there are flaws to this beautiful and absorbing novel, they are not readily apparent."New York Times

[I]rresistible [the author] offers winningly unrestricted access to the thoughts of his affectionate, urbane, vulnerable and fractiously opinionated heroine. Aaliya says that when she reads, she tries to 'let the wall crumble just a bit, the barricade that separates me from the book.' Mr. Alameddine's portrayal of a life devoted to the intellect is so candid and human that, for a time, readers can forget that any such barrier exists."Wall Street Journal

Alameddinehas conjured a beguiling narrator in his engaging novel, a woman who is, like her city, hard to read, hard to take, hard to know and, ultimately, passionately complex."San Francisco Chronicle

[An] opaque self-portrait of an utterly beguiling misanthrope Aaliya notes that: Reading a fine book for the first time is as sumptuous as the first sip of orange juice that breaks the fast in Ramadan." You don't have to fast first (in fact it helps to have gorged on the books that Aaliya translates and adores) in order to savor Alameddine's succulent fiction." Steven G. Kellman, The Boston Globe

You can't help but love this character."Arun Rath, NPR's All Things Considered

A restlessly intelligent novel built around an unforgettable charactera novel full of elegant, poetic sentences."Minneapolis Star Tribune

I can't remember the last time I was so gripped simply by a novel's voice. Alameddine makes it clear that a sheltered life is not necessarily a shuttered one. Aaliya is thoughtful, she's complex, she's humorous and critical."NPR.com

[A] powerful intellectual portrait of a reader who is misread.a meditation on being and literature, written by someone with a passionate love of language and the power of words to compose interior worlds. It's about how, and by what means, we survive. About how, in the end, what is hollow and unneeded becomes full, essential and enduring."Earl Pike, Cleveland Plain Dealer

Beautiful writingsharp, smart and often sardonican homage to literature." Fran Hawthorne, The National

Reading An Unnecessary Woman is about listening to a voice Aaliya's not cantering through a plot, although powerful events do occur, both in the present and in memorya fun, and often funny, bookrich in quirky metaphors An Unnecessary Woman is not a game, though; it is a grave, powerful book. It is the hour-by-hour study of a woman who is struggling for dignity with every breath...The meaning of human dignity is perhaps the great theme of literature, and Alameddine takes it on in every page of this extraordinary book." Washington Independent Review of Books

Playful, brainy and full of zest, An Unnecessary Woman is an antidote to literary blandness."Newsday

Aaliya is a formidable character When An Unnecessary Woman offers her what she regards as the corniest of conceits a redemption arc it's a delight to see her take it."Yvonne Zipp, The Christian Science Monitor

"An Unnecessary Woman is a book lover's book. If you've ever felt not at home in the worldor in your own skinor preferred the company of a good book to that of an actual person, this book will welcome you with open arms and tell you that you're not alone. You just might find a home within its pages." Julie Hakim Azzam, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"An intimate, melancholy and superb tour de force...Alameddine's storytelling is rich with a bookish humor that's accessible without being condescending. A gemlike and surprisingly lively study of an interior life."Kirkus(starred review)

Studded with quotations and succinct observations, this remarkable novel by Alameddine is a paean to fiction, poetry, and female friendship. Dip into it, make a reading list from it, or simply bask in its sharp, smart prose." Michele Leber, Booklist (starred review)

"Alameddine's most glorious passages are those that simply relate Aalyia's thoughts, which read like tiny, wonderful essays. A central concern of the book is the nature of the desire of artistic creators for their work to matter, which the author treats with philosophical suspicion. In the end, Aalyia's epiphany is joyful and freeing."Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Acclaimed author Alameddine (The Hakawati) here relates the internal struggles of a solitary, elderly woman with a passion for books...Aaliya's life may seem like a burden or even "unnecessary" to others since she is divorced and childless, but her humor and passion for literature bring tremendous richness to her day-to-day lifeand to the reader's... Though set in the Middle East, this book is refreshingly free of today's geopolitical hot-button issues. A delightful story for true bibliophiles, full of humanity and compassion."Library Journal

Around and about the central narrative, like tributaries, flow stories of those people Aaliyah has knownThe city of Beirut itself is a character, collapsing, reshaping, renewing, mod¬ern¬ising as Aaliyah herself grows old. Aaliyah's mordant wit is lit by Alameddine's exquisite turns of phrase An Unnecessary Woman is a story of innumerable things. It is a tale of blue hair and the war of attrition that comes with age, of loneliness and grief, most of all of resilience, of the courage it takes to survive, stay sane and continue to see beauty. Read it once, read it twice, read other books for a decade or so, and then pick it up and read it anew. This one's a keeper." Aminatta Forna, The Independent (UK)

[W]hat Alameddine offers here, most o…

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