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Liepman Literary Agency
Marc Koralnik
Original language
English
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http://www.saleemhaddad.com/

GUAPA

Saleem Haddad

Over the course of twenty-four hours, Last Round at Guapa follows Rasa, a young gay man living in an unnamed Arab country, as he tries to carve out a life for himself in the midst of political and religious upheaval.
Rasa spends his days translating for Western journalists, and pining for the nights when he can sneak his lover, Taymour, into his room. Then one morning, Rasa's grandmother, the woman who raised him, catches him in bed with Taymour. The following day — the day leading up to Taymour's marriage — is consumed by the search for his best friend Maj, a fiery activist and drag queen star of the underground bar, Guapa, who has been arrested by regime forces. Unwilling to go home to face his grandmother's shame, reeling from the potential loss of the three most important people in his life, Rasa roams the city's slums and prisons, the lavish weddings of the country's elite, and the bars where outcasts and intellectuals drink to a long-lost revolution. Each new encounter leads him closer to confronting his own identity, as he revisits his childhood and probes the secrets that haunt his family, the uncovering of which might show him the way forward. As Rasa watches the city he once cherished and the revolution that he put his hopes in crumble around him, he is forced to discover the roots of his alienation, and emerge into the world in a new way. Saleem Haddad , born in Kuwait City to a Lebanese-Palestinian father and an Iraqi-German mother, was educated in Jordan, Canada, and the U.K. He worked as an aid worker with Médecins Sans Frontières in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq, and currently lives in London, where he works to include voices of refugees, women, and young people in the transition and peace processes of the Arab Spring.
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Published by Other Press

Comments

Edizioni E/O

Speaking Tiger

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Europa

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I've been reading Saleem Haddad's novel Guapa (Other Press), about a young, gay Muslim in an unnamed country, working as a translator between Arabic and English, struggling to find a space in which to live and love safely, policed by familial shame, but also by the demands of a brutal police state. ---Gregory Woods, The best books for summer 2016 Read more...

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11 Queer Books You Need To Read And Revisit For Summer 2016. These stories are what the world needs now. Read more...

A lavish political wedding that forms the book's final set piece brings revelations and epiphanies, but they don't feel forced.

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"Haddad presents a striking look at gay life, the psychological cost of conformity, and what it means to be true to yourself from a Middle Eastern perspective."

Those looking for a nuanced portrait of gay life in the modern Middle East will find plenty to admire in this flawed but promising debut. Read more...

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The topic of gay life in the Arab world is richly complex, and Haddad's cinematic, evocative prose rises to meet the sensitive subject matter.