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Alia Mamdouh
Alia Mamdouh, also spelled Aliyah Mamduh (Arabic: عالية ممدوح, romanized: ʻĀliyah Mamdūḥ; born 1944) is an Iraqi novelist, author, and journalist living in exile in Paris, France. She won the 2004 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature for her novel The Loved Ones.[1][2] She is most known for her widely acclaimed and translated book Naphtalene, originally written in Arabic.[3] Her 2020 novel The Tank was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.[1][4] Mamdouh was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1944. After completing her degree in psychology from the University of Mustansiriya in 1971, while at the same time working as editor-in-chief of Al Rasid magazine and editor of al-Fikr al-mua’sir magazine, Mamdouh decided to move in 1982. She has since lived in Beirut, Morocco, and finally Paris, where she currently lives. She continues to write.[1] She cites Albert Camus as an influence.[5] Works
Mamdouh writes in Arabic, and two of her works have been translated to English: Naphtalene (translated by Peter Thereoux) and The Loved Ones (translated by Marilyn Booth).[9] Most Mamdouh's books are about Iraq, though she has lived abroad for decades. On the idea of writing about her country while outside of it, she has stated: "Every day I look at my country’s situation and depict its virtues and delights, atrocities and grievances in each novel....I did not leave it, and so it did not leave me."[5] Her first novel, Naphtalene, published soon after she left Iraq, tells the story of a young girl growing up in Baghdad in the 1940s and 1950s.[7][10] See alsoReferences
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