Thani Al-Suwaidi
Antibookclub ($15)

Thani Al-Suwaidi’s novella The Diesel is a miasmic study of gender, religion, and ambition within the context of contemporary Islam. In his first work of fiction, poet Al-Suwaidi (born in the United Arab Emirates in 1966) writes with the narrative economy of an imagist, yet with the informed disconnect of a Modernist. Originally published in Beirut in 1994, and with two subsequent publications in Iraq and Egypt, this isThe Diesel’s first English translation and publication. While diverse Muslim voices are increasingly prevalent in Western literature, The Diesel’s belated entrance should make new work of obliterating cultural stereotypes; it highlights not only humanity’s depth and complexity across cultures, but also our ability to access the universal through the sheer joy of language.