ABU DHAB — Libyan author Mohamed Alnaas
became the youngest winner of the prestigious
International Prize for Arabic Fiction with his debut novel “Bread on Uncle Milad’s Table” on Sunday.
اضافة اعلان
Alnaas, 31, will receive $50,000 and funds will also
be provided to translate his book into English, organizers said on their
website.
The prize, along with a further $50,000 divided
between five other shortlisted novelists, is publicly funded by
Abu Dhabi, one
of seven emirates that make up the UAE.
Published by
Rashm, with support from the Libyan Arete Foundation, the winning novel
explores gender roles in the male-dominated closed society of a Libyan village.
It recounts the story of Milad, who strives to live
up to the definition of ideal masculinity but is deemed to have failed as “a
man” after taking on a home role typically reserved for women while his
partner, Zeinab, works and supports the family.
Born in 1991, Alnaas published a short story
collection, “Blue Blood”, in 2020, but “Bread on Uncle Milad’s Table” is his
first novel.
He is the first Libyan author and youngest writer to
win the prize, which was launched in 2007.
The novel “offers a deep and meticulous critique of
prevailing concepts of masculinity and femininity and the division of work
between men and women, and the effect of these on both a psychological and
social level”, said Shukri Mabkhout, chair of the prize’s panel of judges.
“It falls into the category of novels which question
cultural norms about gender.”
Alnaas’ novel was chosen from a shortlist of six.
The five other shortlisted authors, from Egypt,
Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, and the UAE, will each receive $10,000, the organizers
said.
Oil-rich Abu Dhabi, the richest of the
UAE’s seven emirates,
has taken steps to become a cultural hub including hosting the Louvre Abu Dhabi
museum.
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