CHICAGO: Palestinian author Jabra Ibrahim Jabra was acclaimed by Edward Said as a novelist with “artistic prose and drama” and was one of the first to introduce introspective monologue into Arabic novels. His debut novel, which he first wrote in English in 1946 and then went on to publish in Arabic in 1955, was “Cry in a Long Night,” translated by William Tamplin. The novel is about a man called Amin Samaa and takes place over the course of one night as he walks through a city that mimics Jerusalem. He has to meet an aging Ottoman aristocrat but the road to her house is long and Amin begins to remember parts of his life, his childhood, the girl he met in a forest, and the disappearance of his wife, Sumaya.
Written two years before the Palestinian Nakba, this Jerusalem was “an apocalyptic city fraught with random explosions and terrorist violence as the British Mandate over Palestine slowly expired,” according to Tamplin’s introduction. The novel is told through Amin’s eyes, as the 28-year-old grieves his life’s miseries. He grew up in the poorer part of town but slowly moved his way up in society as he became a novelist and journalist. He married Sumaya, the daughter of a wealthy businessman, and felt as if his life had been made. But then Sumaya disappeared without a trace and his life fell apart.
At a difficult place in life, Amin feels like a failure, and society has never been kind to those who have failed. He is ever-reflective, his thoughts moving quickly as he contemplates himself and the city. He writes fiction about characters who are fragmented parts of himself, parts he must flesh out to understand. Once he has written a book, he finds society has opened its doors to him, but he does not understand himself or society any better. He never suffers in his poverty, but suffers the loss of love in unimaginable ways. With each moment, Amin’s life unfolds as he remembers all the lessons he has learned, the relationships that have been made and broken, and his resilience to survive.
Jabra’s English copy of this work was lost in a bombing in Iraq in 2010 as parts of his house and library were destroyed. In 1948, Jabra had escaped to Baghdad. Having traveled the world — from Jerusalem to England, Massachusetts, back to Jerusalem and then Iraq — he was a writer before his time, introducing modern technique and creating relatable stories. In his introspection, Jabra allows room for his readers to come to their own conclusions, despite what happens in the story.
