Hoda Barakat's Sayyidi Wa Habibi: The Authorized Abridged Edition for Students of Arabic, Abridged Edition

Hoda Barakat's 2004 Arabic novel tells the story of Wadie, a young man who leaves school and becomes corrupted by crime, and his wife, Samia, who flees with him to Cyprus to escape from gang leaders and militiamen he has riled during his criminal career. Set against the backdrop of the Lebanese civil war, the story is narrated by Wadie until he suddenly disappears from Cyprus; Samia then takes over the narration. Discrepancies between their stories raise questions about what exactly has happened, and Wadie's disappearance is never explained. Laila Familiar abridged the text with the author's approval so that it can be read by students with low-advanced proficiency in the Arabic language. Familiar provides introductory materials, a short biography of the author, a personal dictionary, and exercises that develop linguistic and cultural competency. Audio files of Barakat reading five passages from the work will be posted for free access on the GUP web site; these, along with a recorded interview, will help students improve listening skills. The book is meant to be used as a supplementary text and can be covered in ten class sessions.

Author: Laila Familiar, Hoda Barakat
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Published: 10/03/2013
Pages: 128
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.46lbs
Size: 8.96h x 6.10w x 0.32d
ISBN13: 9781626160026
ISBN10: 1626160023
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Criticism | African
- Foreign Language Study | Arabic

About the Author

Laila Familiar is a lecturer in Arabic at the University of Texas at Austin. She has taught language and content-based courses in several renowned programs of Arabic, and was director of the Arabic Summer Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, 2012-13. She has a Master's degree in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language from the American University in Cairo.

Hoda Barakat is a contemporary Lebanese-born novelist writing in the Arabic language. She worked as a teacher, translator, and journalist during the Lebanese Civil War, and it is during this war that her later novels are set. Her works have won several awards, including the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature.

This title is not returnable