beYA
The part of Helion Publishing Group aimed at Young Adult and New Adult readers. The imprint was created to build a community of young book enthusiasts.
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Beyond Words Publishing, Inc.
Many of our books are translated in up to 35 languages
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FictionJanuary 2016The Autumn of Innocence
by Abbas Beydoun
In his novel, The Autumn of Innocence, prominent Lebanese poet and novelist Abbas Beydoun artfully weaves a tragic story of a father-son relationship that ends disastrously with the son's violent death. This story unfolds along with the Arab Spring movement and explores the motivations behind religious extremism and questions cultural constructs of masculinity. The novel opens with a letter from Ghassan to his cousin, describing how his father Massoud strangled his mother to death when Ghassan was just three years old. Afterward, Massoud flees the village in southern Lebanon. For 18 years, no one hears from him, and Ghassan grows up stigmatized by his father's violent crime. In time, Ghassan's aunt Bushra-Massoud's sister-makes a confession: She encouraged Massoud to kill his wife, believing that his wife's low socioeconomic status would bring embarrassment to their wealthy family. Bushra also reveals that Massoud was driven to kill his wife because he feared that she would tell someone that he was impotent, undermining his sense of manhood and social status. Meanwhile, Massoud has moved to southern Syria, where he remarried and had two more sons. During the Arab Spring, the militant groups fighting the Syrian regime transform him into a religious extremist. In the second half of the novel, Massoud return to the village in southern Lebanon. He brings with him a group of men. Together they seize control of the village and terrorize its inhabitants. After killing the dogs, they begin murdering the villagers in the name of religion. One of Ghassan's friends is among the victims, and Massoud also threatens his family. Ghassan decides that he must kill his father, avenging the death of his friend and the deaths of the other villagers. In the end, he fails and is beheaded by Bushra's son, his cousin, who is has joined Massoud's thugs. Beydoun captures the shifting points of view in a family shattered by the tyranny of normative masculinity and the resulting violence. The victims are women, of course, but also the men like Ghassan who reject these social and cultural expectations. The novel also portrays the rise of religious extremism and the terrorism it can inspire, which wreaks havoc on the lives of ordinary people. Beydoun's engaging language imbues the characters and the places they inhabit with a vibrancy and vitality that transcends the difficult subject matter.
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October 2019Ein neuer Divan
Ein lyrischer Dialog zwischen Ost und West
by Barbara Schwepcke, Bill Swainson
Goethes Gedichtsammlung West-östlicher Divan markiert einen Höhepunkt des dichterischen Austauschs zwischen Orient und Okzident. Inspiriert wurde Goethe von den Werken des persischen Dichters Hafis, in dem er einen Seelenverwandten – einen Zwilling, wie er selbst sagte – erkannte. Goethe selbst empfand sein Werk als noch unvollendet und hoffte auf einen künftigen Divan – der mit dieser Anthologie nun vorliegt. 24 Dichterinnen und Dichter – je 12 aus dem „Westen“ und aus dem „Osten“ – haben in ihrer Muttersprache ein Gedicht verfasst. Thematisch orientieren sich die Gedichte an den zwölf Büchern des Divan Goethes. Eine Vielzahl prominenter deutschsprachiger Schriftstellerinnen und Schriftsteller – darunter Nora Bossong, Elke Erb und Lutz Seiler – haben die Übertragungen ins Deutsche erstellt. Alle Gedichte werden sowohl in der Originalsprache als auch in der Übersetzung abgedruckt. Ergänzt wird der Band durch vier Essays, die sich dem interkulturellen Dialog und der Frage der Übersetzung aus wissenschaftlicher Sicht nähern. Die Anthologie bietet ein vielstimmiges Panorama der globalen Lyrik und zeigt die entgrenzende Kraft der Literatur. Ein wichtiger Beitrag in einer Zeit, in der manche Grenzen lieber aufbauen als überwinden würden – und zugleich eine Feier des gemeinsamen kulturellen Erbes von Orient und Okzident.
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March 1998Die dunkle Seite
Roman
by Abbas Maroufi, Anneliese Ghahraman-Beck
Abbas Maroufi wird 1957 in Teheran geboren. Nach der Grundschule muss er seine schulische Weiterbildung auf den Abend verlegen, um tagsüber Geld zu verdienen. Er leistet seinen Militärdienst ab und beginnt in der Freizeit zu schreiben. Das Ende seiner Militärzeit fällt mit der Revolution zusammen, weshalb er sein Studium der Dramatischen Literatur an der Universität Teheran von 1980 bis 1982 unterbrechen muss. Im Jahr 1990 gründet er die Zeitschrift Gardun (»Himmelsgewölbe«), die er als verantwortlicher Herausgeber leitet, bis er im Januar vom »Gericht für Presseangelegenheiten« wegen »Beleidigung« der islamischen Grundwerte zu sechs Monaten Gefängnis, zwanzig Peitschenhieben und zweijährigem Publikationsverbot verurteilt wird. Grund für das Urteil sind Beiträge verschiedener Autoren in Gardun, die angeblich Schmähungen der religiösen Werte und des Revolutionsführers enthalten. Aufgrund internationaler Proteste wird das Urteil vorerst nicht vollzogen, jedoch wird der Zeitschrift Gardun die Lizenz entzogen. Der Autor kann überraschenderweise ohne Schwierigkeiten das Land verlassen. An der Bewerkstelligung der Ausreise beteiligt sind deutsche Stellen sowie der deutsche PEN (mit Günter Grass). Maroufi hat in Iran zahlreiche Romane sowie Erzählbände, Theaterstücke und Essays veröffentlicht. Am bekanntesten wurde seine Symphonie der Toten. Auf Deutsch erschienen ist darüber hinaus u.a. der Roman Die dunkle Seite, eine Variation von Hedayats Blinder Eule. Diesem größten persischen Roman des 20. Jahrhunderts hat Maroufi zudem ein Nachwort gewidmet. Zuletzt lebt Maroufi mit seiner Frau Akram Abooee, einer Malerin, und den drei Töchtern in Berlin. Dort hat er die Buchhandlung Hedayat gegründet. Am 1. September 2022 verstirbt Abbas Maroufi im Alter von 65 Jahren.
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Literature & Literary StudiesFebruary 2019ABBA ABBA: By Anthony Burgess
by Paul Howard, Andrew Biswell
ABBA ABBA is one of Anthony Burgess's most original works, combining fiction, poetry and translation. A product of his time in Italy in the early 1970s, this delightfully unconventional book is part historical novel, part poetry collection, as well as a meditation on translation and the generating of literature by one of Britain's most inventive post-war authors. Set in Papal Rome in the winter of 1820-21, Part One recreates the consumptive John Keats's final months in the Eternal City and imagines his meeting the Roman dialect poet Giuseppe Gioachino Belli. Pitting Anglo-Italian cultures and sensibilities against each other, Burgess creates a context for his highly original versions of 71 sonnets by Belli, which feature in Part Two. This new edition includes extra material by Burgess, along with an introduction and notes by Paul Howard, Fellow in Italian Literature at Trinity College, Cambridge.
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September 2002Mündliches und Schriftliches
Zu Büchern, Bildern und Filmen 1992–2002
by Peter Handke, Peter Handke
Die in diesem Buch versammelten Aufsätze, Notate und Reden aus den vergangenen zehn Jahren zeigen Peter Handke als leidenschaftlichen Kinogänger, Bildbetrachter und Leser beim »Beobachten, Betasten, Beschreiben, Vergleichen«.Mit einem unbändigen »Appetit auf die Welt« läßt er sich ein auf die Werke von Kollegen, um sie »mit erfrischten Augen« neu zu sehen, sich selbst im Kunstgenuß als einen Veränderten und Bereicherten zu erleben. »Es war, als hätte ich mir durch bloßes Zuschauen die Welt verdient«, beschreibt Handke etwa in einer Rede auf der Viennale 1992 sein Kinoerlebnis mit Antonionis La Notte. Was wir erfahren von seinen Begegnungen mit Filmen von Jean-Marie Straub oder Abbas Kiarostami, dem iranischen Cineasten, mit Büchern von Marguerite Duras, Hermann Lenz, Karl Philipp Moritz, Ralf Rothmann, Erich Wolfgang Skwara, den Bildern und Gemälden Pierre Alechinskys, Emil Schumachers und Anselm Kiefers sind weltauftuende und scharfsichtige Beobachtungen, durch die immer der Blick auf das Umfassendere mitgeöffnet wird. Sichtbar werden Bilder – »bekannt als Bilder aus dem eigenen Leben – dem unbekannten eigenen Leben. Nur dem eigenen? Nein: dem unbekannten, größeren, in dem auch das des Betrachters mitspielt.«
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October 2018Mündliches und Schriftliches
Zu Büchern, Bildern und Filmen 1992-2002
by Peter Handke
Die in diesem Buch versammelten Aufsätze, Notate und Reden aus den vergangenen zehn Jahren zeigen Peter Handke als leidenschaftlichen Kinogänger, Bildbetrachter und Leser beim »Beobachten, Betasten, Beschreiben, Vergleichen«.Mit einem unbändigen »Appetit auf die Welt« läßt er sich ein auf die Werke von Kollegen, um sie »mit erfrischten Augen« neu zu sehen, sich selbst im Kunstgenuß als einen Veränderten und Bereicherten zu erleben. »Es war, als hätte ich mir durch bloßes Zuschauen die Welt verdient«, beschreibt Handke etwa in einer Rede auf der Viennale 1992 sein Kinoerlebnis mit Antonionis La Notte. Was wir erfahren von seinen Begegnungen mit Filmen von Jean-Marie Straub oder Abbas Kiarostami, dem iranischen Cineasten, mit Büchern von Marguerite Duras, Hermann Lenz, Karl Philipp Moritz, Ralf Rothmann, Erich Wolfgang Skwara, den Bildern und Gemälden Pierre Alechinskys, Emil Schumachers und Anselm Kiefers sind weltauftuende und scharfsichtige Beobachtungen, durch die immer der Blick auf das Umfassendere mitgeöffnet wird. Sichtbar werden Bilder – »bekannt als Bilder aus dem eigenen Leben – dem unbekannten eigenen Leben. Nur dem eigenen? Nein: dem unbekannten, größeren, in dem auch das des Betrachters mitspielt.«
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The Motherland Saga Vol I
VOLUME ONE, LEGACY: 1897 – 1917
by Hugo N.Gerstl
Today, Turkey stands at the center of the world, as it has for millennia. Yet, once again, its position as an international power is ambiguous. It straddles the Occident and the Orient, yet it is neither comfortable with or trusted by either East or West. Beneath its glittering exterior, Turkey is a dormant volcano, ready to explode again, as it has done so many times throughout history. In LEGACY, we meet Turhan Türkoğlu and Abbas Hükümdar, victims of unspeakable poverty and cruelty, each of whom will walk entirely different paths in life. We come face to face with Halide Orhan, one of the greatest heroines of modern literature. In this volume, we witness the death throes of a decaying superpower, the Ottoman Empire, and the beginning of the modern era, marked by the horrors of World War I. Each of these three characters leave their indelible imprint on their Motherland. Published By Pangæa Publishing Group, 2019. 274 pages – 23 cm x 15 cm
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The Motherlands Sgaa Vol. II
VOLUME TWO, EMERGENCE: 1918 – 1938
by Hugo N. Gerstl
VOLUME TWO, EMERGENCE: 1918 – 1938 In Volume One, LEGACY, we witnessed the death of the Ottoman Empire. The Western Powers, who thought they’d have an easy time dismembering the corpse, somehow never reckoned with the courage and resilience of the Turkish people – or that a leader as great as Kemal Atatürk would grab the Motherland by the scruff of the neck and yank it forward five centuries in the span of fifteen years. The fourth major protagonist in this epic, Nadji Akdemir, scion of generations of military pride, enters the tale when Turkey is at its nadir, and afterward joins Turhan Türkoğlu and Halide Orhan at Turkey’s rebirth and EMERGENCE as the Motherland builds from within. Meanwhile, as the world descends into a nascent holocaust like none other in history, Abbas Hükümdar hitches his yoke to the rising star that is Hitler’s Thousand-Year Reich. Published By Pangæa Publishing Group, 2019. Volume Two - 238 pages – 23 cm x 15 cm
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January 2013The Madmen of Bethlehem
by Osama Alaysa
Adopting the story-within-a-story structure of Arabian Nights, author Osama Alaysa weaves together a collection of stories portraying centuries of oppression endured by the Palestinian people. This remarkable novel eloquently brings together fictional characters alongside real-life historical figures in a complex portrayal of Bethlehem and the Dheisheh Refugee Camp in the West Bank. The common thread connecting each tale is madness, in all its manifestations. Psychological madness, in the sense of clinical mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, finds expression alongside acts of social and political madness. Together, these accounts of individuals and communities provide a gateway into the histories of the city of Bethlehem and Palestine. They paint a picture of the centuries of political oppression that the Palestinian people have endured, from the days of the Ottoman Empire to the years following the Oslo Accords, and all the way to 2012 (when the novel was written). The novel is divided into three sections, each containing multiple narratives. The first section, “The Book of a Genesis,” describes the physical spaces and origins of Bethlehem and Dheisheh Refugee Camp. These stories span the 19th and 20th centuries, transitioning smoothly from one tale to another to offer an intricate interpretation of the identity of these places. The second section, “The Book of the People Without a Book”, follows parallel narratives of the lives of the patients in a psychiatric hospital in Bethlehem, the mad men and women roaming the streets of the city, and those imprisoned by the Israeli authorities. All suffer abuse, but they also reaffirm their humanity through the relationships, romantic and otherwise, that they form. The third and final section, “An Ephemeral Book,” follows individuals—Palestinian and non-Palestinian—who are afflicted by madness following the Oslo Accords in 1993. These stories give voice to the perspectives of the long-marginalized Palestinian population, narrating the loss of land and the accompanying loss of sanity in the decades of despair and violence that followed the Nakba, the 1948 eviction of some 700,000 Palestinians from their homes. The novel’s mad characters—politicians, presidents, doctors, intellectuals, ordinary people and, yes, Dheisheh and Bethlehem themselves—burst out of their narrative threads, flowing from one story into the next. Alaysa’s crisp, lucid prose and deft storytelling chart a clear path through the chaos with dark humor and wit. The result is an important contribution to fiction on the Palestinian crisis that approaches the Palestinians, madness, and Palestinian spaces with compassion and depth.
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Children's & YAJanuary 2015Hatless
by Lateefa Buti / Illustrated by Doha Al Khteeb
Kuwaiti children’s book author Lateefa Buti’s well-crafted and beautifully illustrated children’s book, Hatless, encourages children (ages 6-9) to think independently and challenge rigid traditions and fixed rituals with innovation and creativity. The main character is a young girl named Hatless who lives in the City of Hats. Here, all of the people are born with hats that cover their heads and faces. The world inside of their hats is dark, silent, and odorless. Hatless feels trapped underneath her own hat. She wants to take off her hat, but she is afraid, until she realizes that whatever frightening things exist in the world around her are there whether or not she takes off her hat to see them. So Hatless removes her hat. As Hatless takes in the beauty of her surroundings, she cannot help but talk about what she sees, hears, and smells. The other inhabitants of the city ostracize her because she has become different from them. It is not long before they ask her to leave the City of Hats. Rather than giving up or getting angry, Hatless feels sad for her friends and neighbors who are afraid to experience the world outside of their hats. She comes up with an ingenious solution: if given another chance, she will wear a hat as long it is one she makes herself. The people of the City of Hats agree, so Hatless weaves a hat that covers her head and face but does not prevent her from seeing the outside world. She offers to loan the hat to the other inhabitants of the city. One by one, they try it on and are enchanted by the beautiful world around them. Since then, no child has been born wearing a hat. The people celebrate by tossing their old hats in the air. By bravely embracing these values, Hatless improves her own life and the lives of her fellow citizens. Buti’s language is eloquent and clear. She strikes a skilled narrative balance between revealing Hatless’s inner thoughts and letting the story unfold through her interactions with other characters. Careful descriptions are accompanied by beautiful illustrations that reward multiple readings of the book.
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In the Footsteps of Enayat Al-Zayyat
by Iman Mersal
‘In the Footsteps of Enayat Al-Zayyat’ is a book that traces the life of an unknown Egyptian writer who died in 1963, four years before the release of her only novel. The book does not follow a traditional style to present the biography of Al-Zayyat, or to restore consideration for a writer who was denied her rights. Mersal refuses to present a single story as if it is the truth and refuses to speak on behalf of the heroine or deal with her as a victim, but rather takes us on a journey to search for the individuality that is often marginalised in Arab societies. The book searches for a young woman whose family burned all her personal documents, including the draft of her second novel, and was completely absent in the collective archives. The narration derives its uniqueness from its ability to combine different literary genres such as fictional narration, academic research, investigation, readings, interviews, fiction, and fragments of the autobiography of the author of the novel. The book deals with the differences between the individuality of Enayat, who was born into an aristocratic family, graduated from a German school and wrote her narration during the domination of the speeches of the Nasserism period, and that of Mersal, a middle-class woman who formed her consciousness in the 1990s and achieved some of what Enayat dreamed of achieving but remained haunted by her tragedy. The book deals with important political, social and cultural issues, as we read the history of psychiatry in modern Egypt through the pills that Enayat swallowed to end her life on 3 January 1963, while her divorce summarises the continuing suffering of women with the Personal Status Law. We also see how the disappearance of a small square from her neighbourhood reveals the relationship between modernity and bureaucracy, and how the geography of Cairo changes, obliterated as the result of changes in political regimes. In the library of the German Archaeological Institute, where Enayat worked, we find an unwritten history of World War II and, in her unpublished second novel, we see unknown stories of German scientists fleeing Nazism to Cairo. We also see how Enayat’s neglected tomb reveals the life story of her great-grandfather, Ahmed Rashid Pasha, and the disasters buried in the genealogy tree.
