Co-translated with Katharine Halls.
Winner of the 2017 Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation (tied for 1st place, Arabic-to-English category).
Set in Mecca, Raja Alem’s novel begins with a woman’s body found in Abu al-Rus, the Lane of Many Heads. The investigation opens onto a many-voiced portrait of the holy city, blending mystery, social critique, surreal narration, and the lane’s own memory of lives shaped by desire, secrecy, migration, and power.
Reviews
“Alem, the first woman to win the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, blends surrealism and mystery in this challenging novel, which opens with the Lane of Many Heads taking on narrative duty” — Publishers Weekly (Andrew Nurnberg Associates)
“While the novel’s setting is contemporary, Ms. Alem tinges each page with the musky, byzantine ambience of Mecca and the Lane, an atmosphere faithfully rendered in Katharine Halls and Adam Talib’s nuanced translation.” — Words Without Borders (Full review)