Before The Queen Falls Asleep by Huzama Habayeb
Expertly capturing the everyday lives of displaced Palestinians, Before the Queen Falls Asleep is a timely translation into English of Huzama Habayeb's acclaimed Arabic novel
Before the Queen Falls Asleep tells a tale of tragedy and not-quite-love, expertly capturing the everyday reality of displaced Palestinians. Originally published in Arabic in 2011, its English translation has come at a time of utmost importance.
Huzama Habayeb does not write explicitly of the atrocities that we know have fuelled the difficulties her narrator, Jihad, is faced with. Yet it is through this unspokenness that we find a strange potency – in the few moments in which such suffering is addressed, it is with impact one can hardly imagine. Jihad, like Habayeb, is a well-regarded Palestinian writer, loomed over by an ongoing history of displacement.
The novel is framed in vignettes: short stories caringly addressed to Jihad’s daughter. Each one is marked with frustration yet told with the loving language of tender guardianship, wonderfully mapping this mother-daughter relationship. The prose (as translated by Kay Heikkinen) is full of vital language and, when not poetically delving into deep and emotive expression, is pushed forward with the interpolation of vibrant and sharp wordplay.
Habayeb leaves her readers hanging on every word, as we scrap to fill in the gaps she leaves between her night-time stories, told in anticipation of the imminent departure of a child she adores so much. Before the Queen Falls Asleep is a slow-burner, yet the burn is hot and leaves a lasting impact.