Vénus Khoury-Ghata – författare

Novellen Hafia, »Barfota» på arabiska, bygger på ett verkligt möte mellan Vénus Khoury-Ghata och en sextonårig flicka som hade lämnat sin fattiga hemby och flyttat in hos författaren i Beirut. Vénus Khoury-Ghata föddes 1937 i Libanon men är sedan snart 40 år bosatt i Paris. I sina flerfaldigt prisbelönta romaner och diktsamlingar förenar hon sin kärlek till den arabiska kulturen med en rik och personlig behandling av det franska språket.

När ljuset en dag tänds i gården på andra sidan floden rullas en mörk historia upp om de två systrarna Mathilde och Zorah och deras rivalitet om den uppburne författaren som båda älskade. Boken är tillägnad Torgny Lindgren, vars Augustvinnande roman Hummelhonung (1995) inspirerade Khoury-Ghata att berätta denna historia. Vénus Khoury-Ghata, född 1937 i Libanon, är sedan snart fyrtio år bosatt i Paris. I sitt författarskap förenar hon sin kärlek till den arabiska kulturen med en starkt personlig behandling av det franska språket. Khoury-Ghata har gett ut ett tjugotal romaner och lika många diktsamlingar för vilka hon har tilldelats en rad priser, bland andra Franska akademiens Stora poesipris 2009 och det prestigefyllda franska Goncourt-priset för poesi 2011. Khoury-Ghata är också en hängiven översättare av samtida arabisk poesi till franska. "Vénus Khoury-Ghatas roman är en magisk pärla. (...) Hennes språk är säreget, i prosan finns också en stor dos poesi och enskilda meningar kan se ut som fint slipade diamanter. Hos Vénus Khoury-Ghata finner man ett författarskap av högsta kvalitet." Bloggen Occident

Den dödssjuka Emma Chattlehorse flyr en dag sin mans egendom i Mexico Citys förmögna kvarter, vandrar planlöst genom staden och stiger på en buss utan att veta vart hon är på väg. Hon hamnar i en gudsförgäten indianby i bergen, där hon hälsas som barnens sedan länge efterlängtade lärarinna, La Maestra. Kring den gåtfulla främlingen koncentreras snart de fattiga, vidskepliga och oberäkneliga bybornas drömmar och besvikelser. Vénus Khoury-Ghata är född i Libanon, men sedan 30 år bosatt i Paris. I sina flerfaldigt prisbelönta romaner och diktsamlingar förenar hon sin kärlek till den arabiska kulturen med en rik och personlig behandling av det franska språket.

The year is 1938. The great Russian poet and essayist Osip Mandelstam is forty-seven years old and is dying in a transit camp near Vladivostok after having been arrested by Stalin’s government during the repression of the 1930s and sent into exile with his wife. Stalin, “the Kremlin mountaineer, murderer, and peasant-slayer,” is undoubtedly responsible for his fatal decline. From the depths of his prison cell, lost in a world full of ghosts, Mandelstam sees scenes from his life pass before him: constant hunger, living hand to mouth, relying on the assistance of sympathetic friends, shunned by others, four decades of creation and struggle, alongside his beloved wife Nadezhda, and his contemporaries Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva, Boris Pasternak, and many others.With her sensitive prose and innate sense of drama, French-Lebanese writer Vénus Khoury-Ghata brings Mandelstam back to life and allows him to have the last word—proving that literature is one of the surest means to fight against barbarism.

Lebanese writer Vénus Khoury-Ghata, who lives in France and has won many of France's major literary prizes, blends French surrealism with Arabic poetry's communal narrative mode in three stunning poetic sequences. Here brilliantly translated from the French by poet Marilyn Hacker, the English-speaking reader has rare insight into another world, another dimension.

A biographic novel that captures the tempestuous and moving life of the poet Marina Tsvetaeva.The life of Marina Tsvetaeva (1892–1941) coincided with turbulent years in Russian history. She was an eminent Russian poet and a passionate lover involved with several men at the same time, including Rilke, who chose Lou Andreas-Salomé over her, and Pasternak, who married someone else, but protected her until her death. Her life included many trials such as her poverty during the grueling Russian civil war, her young daughter’s death from hunger in an orphanage, and the death of her husband, who fought against the Communist regime and was executed by the Soviet state. Rejected by official poets, then by the wealthy Russian diaspora in France, she finally returned to her country to end her wandering life. She hanged herself from a rope in an attic from which she could see the field where she had dug with bare hands for potatoes abandoned by local farmers. A poet-martyr of the Stalinist era—buried in an unmarked plot in the cemetery of Yelabuga—Tsvetaeva is brought to life in this poetic biographical novel by celebrated Lebanese author Vénus Khoury-Ghata.

A lyrical novel concerning belonging, foreignness, and ethnicity.  Following the path of her late geneticist husband, Laure arrives in the town of Malaterra in the harsh mountains of Abruzzo in Italy, where her husband was studying the close-knit Albanian inhabitants. At first an intruder, she is gradually accepted by the population, which is made up of amusing, eccentric characters. Among them: Helena, who hanged her dishonored daughter from the fig tree in her garden, and who has been waiting for thirty years with her gun for her daughter’s rapist to return; the Kosovar, a distrusted bookseller languishing in his dusty shop; Mourad, the baker, who proposes marriage to Laure and every other woman who enters his bakery; and Yussuf, the postman, who makes his rounds even if there is no mail to deliver. We also meet the unfortunate assailant who returns from his exile to reclaim and restore his family home. With humor and compassion, this book brings to life the inhabitants of a small, remote town in the mountains of Abruzzo.

A lyrical novel with a poetic narrative about an overlooked individual in Arab African history.For two days the rabbi rides on a donkey to find the ideal fiancée. Legs and arms shaved, hands dyed with henna, a girl to be married must shine like a mirror. Every girl hopes to be the chosen one and ride off on a donkey to live in the city. The desert is the domain of men; they believe they see oases and palm trees sagging with fruit, while women see only sand on top of sand. A rapid look-around at the girls in the circle was enough for the traveling rabbi to find the right one. He chooses Yudah because of her name, a contraction of Yahuda, and because she lowered her eyes when he looked at her.The Fiancée Rode In on a Donkey tells Yudah’s story. Instead of experiencing her dream of being chosen and riding off on a donkey to live in a palace, she finds herself in an encampment of tents swaying in the wind. She also doesn’t find the Emir, who is battling on other fronts and soon surrenders. Yudah and the rest of his followers are exiled to Ile Sainte-Marguerite, where she pursues a tireless quest for her future husband in France, seeking a man she has never seen. Will the fantastic destiny of the young girl from the desert ever be fulfilled?In lyrical novel after novel, Vénus Khoury-Ghata chooses overlooked individuals from history and brings them back to life on the page. Hauntingly unforgettable, The Fiancée Rode In on a Donkey is yet another poetic narrative from one of the most respected French authors of our times.

In a remote community on the edge of a windswept desert, a woman has been condemned to death by stoning. Steeped in the harsh values of her traditional, patriarchal society, Noor accepts her fate. When an aid worker befriends her, urging her to defend herself and her unborn child, the two women form a bond. Together with Amina, Noor's outspoken friend, they struggle to defy the law. Written in prose imbued with the rhythms and images of the author's native language, Arabic, this is a tale of the bonds of female friendships, solidarity and empowerment in a society where a woman's voice, especially in the public sphere, has been denied.

Dikterna i Variationer kring ett körsbärsträd är hämtade ur Khoury-Ghatas tidigare produktion. Boken är hennes första diktsamling på svenska och ingår i förlagets serie Rondo. Vénus Khoury-Ghata, född 1937 i Libanon, är sedan snart fyrtio år bosatt i Paris. I sitt författarskap förenar hon sin kärlek till den arabiska kulturen med en starkt personlig behandling av det franska språket. Khoury-Ghata har gett ut ett tjugotal romaner och lika många diktsamlingar för vilka hon har tilldelats en rad priser, bland andra Franska akademiens Stora poesipris 2009. Khoury-Ghata är också en hängiven översättare av samtida arabisk poesi till franska.

»I en by i norr svettas en helig maronitgrav blod sedan hundra år. Min fars grav svettas genom sina porer i stenen. Min mors, måttfull och täckt med mossa, läcker tårar. Min mor hade bara sina tårar att försvara sig med. Gud, gör så att han dör! upprepade jag intill utmattning när min far dröjde med att komma hem. Jag drömde om att bli faderlös. Bara hans död skulle sätta punkt för min mors tårar, min brors skrik och vår bävan.» Vénus Khoury-Ghata föddes i Libanon, men är sedan trettio år bosatt i Paris. I sina fl erfaldigt prisbelönta romaner och diktsamlingar förenar hon sin kärlek till den arabiska kulturen med en starkt personlig behandling av det franska språket.