The Springs

About this book

Set between Muharraq and Manama, The Springs follows Mohammed Al-Awwad, a musician punished for his devotion to the oud yet determined to give voice to the dispossessed. His impossible love for May unfolds beside the uprising of laboring sailors who tear up their debt bonds, while traditional authorities confront British guns and expanding colonial power. The late Bahraini writer and thinker Abdullah Khalifa recreates an age of profound transition through a narrative rich in sound, salt, smoke, and song. More than the story of a hunted singer, the novel is the chronicle of a society in ferment and of art becoming a wellspring of collective memory and resistance.