A Wolf in the Family

In a dilapidated building in a working-class neighbourhood of Tripoli in Northen Lebanon, several stories intertwine: first, that of Hassan, a whimsical, insomniac, and taciturn teenager—a lone wolf mistreated by his peers who claims to communicate with the dead; that of his father, Ziad, who fell madly in love in his youth with a transgender sex worker; of his mother, Saadiyé, the only person he loves in the world; and above all, the story of his grandmother, Chamsé, a member of a Bedouin tribe, whose mutilated body is discovered in the river that runs through the city right at the beginning of the novel.  Other unusual characters—as well as spirits and monsters—emerge in this dark tableau that constantly oscillates between past and present, dream and reality.

With great tenderness and a remarkable freedom of tone—at times tinged with biting irony—Souhaib Ayoub delves into the very heart of his hometown, his narrative mirroring Tripoli’s back alleys, dead ends, networks, and buried layers. By blurring the boundaries between genders, generations, geographical spaces, and narrative forms, he enriches Arabic literature with a dense and scathing novel that is a complete page turner, at times baroque and always poetic.