Juliana

About this book

In the darkness of distances separating 'Bantio' from the streets of 'Sayeda Zeinab,' 'Juliana' is born as a stifled scream in the face of the world, and a memory refusing extinction despite war's ashes. This book is not merely a short-story collection but a mirror reflecting the faces the Janjaweed's shells devoured, and the souls that wandered Cairo's alleys searching for the mirage of safety. Fatima Eissa Al-Khair takes us on a painful literary journey where philosophy meets tears beneath the giant 'tabeldi' tree. There, where heroes ask about 'dissociative memory loss' and about a universe possibly older than the Big Bang, we discover the true tragedy lies not only in losing homelands but in losing identity and the ability to remember loved ones' features before the ash settles over their tales. Between the melodies of 'freedom' in Asmara's prisons and the sweetness of 'Kampala' hiding bitterness of estrangement behind it, the author moves with literary skill explaining the human psyche in its utmost states of fracture. 'Juliana' is the voice of all those.