Friday 56 #107 - The Trench by Abdelrahman Munif #AbdelrahmanMunif

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The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice.The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your ereader and find any sentence or a few ( no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.

Please join Rose City Reader every Friday to share the first sentence or so of the book you are reading along with you initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

Please include the title of the book and the author’s name.

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I had a hard time finding the info on this book. I did not realize it was the second book in the series when I grabbed this book a long time ago, because of the controversy. It was banned in some Arab countries. I hate when someone tries to tell me what I can and cannot read, so I will do what I can to support the author.

This is the cover I have, but it was difficult to find it.

Amazon / Goodreads

My 56

“He works until dawn – he doesn’t sleep until he hears the morning prayer call.” He smiled. “The light in that office is never even turned off!”

(Page 56 in hardcover, published in 1991)

Book Beginnings

Mooran seemed sunk, early that spring, in a meditative silence, as if the city had nothing on its mind. But a sharp eye saw, in this silence, expectancy and signs of unease. The calm was deceptive and would end abruptly, as if it had never been. With no plan or collusion, the silence was shared by all; their movements were exaggeratedly slow and measured, with a suggestion of secrecy and conspiracy, since any slip, whatever its cause, would give offense and create difficulties not easily dispelled.

Do you ever feel you have to have a book because it has been banned or is controversial?

AMAZON BLURB: Set in 1950, the novel brilliantly evokes the royal court of a fictional monarchy, in all its fatuousness, turpitude, and savagery – an obsenely rich monarchy that presides over artificial boundaries defined by imperialists, that depends on foreign intriguers and masses of migrant workers for its luxury, and that practices severly undemocratic and repressive policies. The book is banned in Saudi Arabia and other Persian gulf countries.