The Hidden Light of Objects

‘With her compassion for an old, vanished world and her exceptional eye for the bruised landscape of the modern Middle East, Al-Nakib should be heralded as an exciting new literary voice.’ * The National * ‘The old world and the new. The strife in the Gulf, once peaceful and reflective. East and West, Arabic and English, the poetry of the heart, the eye of the hawk; all these elements produce the lustrous pearls of Mai Al-Nakib’s short stories.’ -- Hanan al-Shaykh ‘Al-Nakib writes with penetrating insight and such compressed lyricism that at times her prose seems to border on poetry. It's a densely imagined and beautifully written debut.’ * The Sydney Morning Herald * ‘Through a richly nuanced and generous lens, Al-Nakib’s gracefully intertwined stories celebrate the living desire that connects us to home – wherever in the world that might be – as well as to the past and to each other. A powerful voice already in full mastery of her powers. The most original first collection of short fiction I have read in years.’ -- A. Manette Ansay ‘Mai Al-Nakib’s The Hidden Light of Objects brings forth both the light and the shadows of the contemporary Middle East in clean-edged prose that startles us, not with sudden violence or polemic, but with the ineluctable force of human desire. Kuwait itself becomes a character, full of contradictions, in this multifaceted set of stories and vignettes. Superb.’ -- Lucy Ferriss ‘In this, her first collection of stories, Kuwaiti author Mai Al-Nakib excavates meaning from the overlooked and the unremarked. In ten tales, interspersed by linking vignettes, she shows how, in the midst of mayhem and strife, people get on with their lives. War, disaster, and religious conflict are all present here but the author keeps the focus on the individual and, as in life, private joy and grief loom larger than news items. The Hidden Light of Objects marks the emergence of an author already confident in her craft and her ability to give voice to the emotions and yearnings of her characters.’ * New Internationalist * ‘These moments examined, small and beautiful and finely drawn, evoke a world of loss, of longing, and remembrance. Mai Al-Nakib’s debut collection, The Hidden Light of Objects, reveals the life before and after, old and new, innocent and wise, becoming. Beautiful.’ -- M. Evelina Galang