I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops
1994
First Published
3.55
Average Rating
253
Number of Pages
Since the U.S. publication of Women of Sand and Myrrh—which has now sold more than 35,000 copies and was selected as one of the Fifty Best Books of 1992 by Publishers Weekly—Hanan al-Shaykh has attracted an ever larger following for her dazzling tales of contemporary Arab women. In these seventeen short stories—eleven of which are appearing in English for the first time—al-Shaykh expands her horizons beyond the boundaries of Lebanon, taking us throughout the Middle East, to Africa, and finally to London. Stylistically diverse, her stories are often about the shifting and ambiguous power relationships between different cultures—as well as between men and women. Often compared to both Margaret Atwood and Margaret Drabble, Hanan al-Shaykh is "a gifted and courageous writer" ( Middle Eastern International ).
Avg Rating
3.55
Number of Ratings
387
5 STARS
21%
4 STARS
33%
3 STARS
29%
2 STARS
12%
1 STARS
4%
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Author
Hanan Al-Shaykh
Author · 9 books
Hanan Al-Shaykh (Arabic: حنان الشيخ) is a Lebanese journalist, novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. Born into a conservative Shia' Muslim family, she received her primary education in Beirut and later she attended the American College for Girls in Cairo. She began her journalism career in Egypt before returning to Lebanon. Her short stories and novels feature primarily female characters in the face of conservative religious traditions set against the backdrop of political tensions and instability of the Lebanese civil war.
