Full Description
In his masterpiece The Cat Who Taught Me How to Fly, Hashem Gharaibeh tells the moving story of a political prisoner during Jordan's martial law era, which spanned from 1967 to 1989. Gharaibeh defies the taboos of politics, sex, and religion to tell a thrilling and brutally honest story about the horrors and insanities of everyday life in an Arab prison. At once both a novel and an autobiography, the author draws from his own experiences as a Jordanian youth arrested and imprisoned for nearly a decade for his affiliation with the Jordanian Communist Party. The novel uniquely portrays prison culture intertwined with tribal, ideological, and political perspectives to explain both mundane and esoteric aspects of prison life in this time and era, illustrating an experience that is traumatic, humane, and inspiring. A heartwrenching story of learning, survival, and the quest for the freedom of thought is told with powerful defiance and grace, exposing us to human frailty, strength, and one man's dream to soar beyond the walls of prison, society, and self.
Contents
Translator's Introduction Dreams, My Novel, and Me: The Novel The Cat Who Taught Me How to Fly - Hashem Gharaibeh, translated by Nesreen Akhtarkhavari The Cat Who Taught Me How to Fly The Stranger's Cage The Trial The Comrade Karma The Denouncement The Break The Cage of the Righteous A Coup The Cobia Pen The White House The Narrator Eid Irbid The Nude's Island The Reconciliation Maha Mad Winter Returns The Cat The Secret of the Dungeon No Way Out Notes
