The Sudanese author Buthaina Khidir Mekki, presents in this distinguished collection of short stories, the Smell of Autumn, some of the common features of contemporary life in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Algeria, Somalia and Sudan. One of the features of  Arabic narrative is showing how in the vicious bane of a disintegrating reality and quest for peace fall back into inner fighting. Mounts of worries from knowing her identity and opening the bolts of cultural and social identity to the streams of blood running through the homeland fall on the back of the woman-Arab writer.  Buthaina Mekki writes Along the line of tangled identities and wars.

—Fathi Umbabi, Egyptian writer and novelist

In this collection of short stories by Buthaina Khidir Mekki, we get a story-telling narrative that gets a grip of the reader as she has the dramatizes the issue. The author’s  daring narrative is clearly shown in the story “The Circumcision Night”, where she dealt with a thorny issue. In this collection one finds a focus on a short narrative that carries both an action and reaction to it.

Stories such as “A Ticket Home” show the tension between men and women, such tension is on of the elements in constructing the stories in this book.

—Dr. Afaf Abdelmu’ti, A Literary Critic and professor of Comparative Literature

Author’s Bio:

Buthaina Khidir Mekki is a Sudanese novelist and a writer of short stories she published five novels and collections of short stories. Her books have been translated into English, French and German. Buthaina was honored with the prominent Arab Women Writers. She was the first president of Sudanese Women Writers Association. Now she is the director of Buthina Khidir Mekki Center for culture and Enlightenment in Khartoum Sudan.

Translator’s Bio

Asma M. Abdel Halim is Associate Professor at the University of Toledo, Department of Women's and Gender Studies.  She has been a human rights activist for over 35 years. Her research publications covered women’s  rights in domestic and international laws as they intersect with religion and culture. Her main  focus is  Muslim and African women’s rights. Asma is translating Sudanese writers works from Arabic to English. She published  a translation of M.I. Nugud’s  book Slavery Relations in the Sudan.

Illustrator’s bio:

Mudather Ahmed is a Sudanese-Australian artist based in Melbourne Australia. Mudather is a social worker by training but maintained his passion for painting and drawing and attended art training in Australia. He participated in several exhibitions. Mudather has a particular passion for using black ink on paper to reflect both simplicity and complexity of subjects and ideas. 

Category: Fiction, Short stories/Africa and the Arab World

Page count: 134

Trim size: 5X7

Publication date: 2021