Dreams Commit Suicide, but They Do Not Die

About this book

Born in gray Muharraq between two disputed birth dates, Hamad Zahran enters a world that seems to reject him before he can understand it. Raised by the sea and his uncle Abu Alwa, he grows from a child playing among refuse into a man who faces death repeatedly and learns to transform pain into words. Ahmed Gomaa's novel spans the hard years of the 1950s and a misted present, carrying the smells of fish, smoke, and salt alongside the voices of sailors and the changes of a country. It is a candid life narrative in which love becomes revolt and dreams, however often defeated, refuse to vanish.