Tinged with a Kafkaesque sense of the absurd, The Silence and the Roar explores what it means to be truly free in mind and body.” His only weapon against the irrationality of the government employees is his sense of irony. When Fathi turns himself in, he is led from one department to another in an ever-widening bureaucratic labyrinth. Fathi’s ID papers are confiscated and he is told to report to the police station before night falls. Desperate to get away from the noise and the zombie-like masses, Fathi leaves his house to visit his mother and his girlfriend, but en route stops to help a student who is being beaten by the police. The heat is oppressive and loudspeakers blare as an endless parade takes over the streets. The entire populace has mobilized to celebrate the twenty-year anniversary of the reigning despot in this unnamed Middle eastern country. It follows a day in the life of Fathi Sheen, an author banned from publishing because he refuses to write propaganda for the ruling government. “The Silence and the Roar is a funny, sexy, dystopian novel about the struggle of an individual over tyranny. The English translation is by Max Weiss, and won a 2013 English PEN Award.Ī brief summary of the book from the publisher, Other Press: For July we’re reading الصمت والصخب لنهاد سيريس / The Silence and the Roar by Syrian author Nihad Sirees.
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