| 1 | Best short story I’ve ever read Since it is impossible to answer this question, I’ll answer it with the additional qualification “that I recall”. So, the short story I remember as the best now, was written by Palestinian writer Mahmoud Shukair, and is called ‘My cousin Condoleezza’. |
| 2 | Book that should be on the national curriculum: Palestinian writer Imil Habibi’s novel The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist. It is a great piece of art, a masterpiece of modern Arab writing, dealing with political issues. |
| 3 | Best ‘film of the book’ Didn’t read this kind of book, didn’t see this kind of a film. |
| 4 | The most scary question you have even been asked? Once, I was asked by my first girlfriend: Do you think I’m fat?... I still don’t answer this kind of question! Not under any circumstances!!! |
| 5 | My favourite opening line of a novel “This narrow and small road shouldn’t be called avenue in the first place, but the high and old trees surrounding it give the people the nerve to call it so, despite the fact that there couldn’t be any avenues in a small village”. (My translation) |
| 6 | My favourite novel that no one else seems to have heard of Al-hamishi, written by the great Palestinian author Ryad Baydas. |
| 7 | The book I’d most like to reread, if I could find it again When I was young I read a novel called ‘Dying from love’ (again, my translation), which I couldn’t find anywhere when I looked for it again. It doesn’t help that now I don’t even remember the author’s name. |
| 8 | My favourite bookshop Eben Rushd, an Arab bookshop in Paris. |
| 9 | Author I’d like to nominate for the Nobel Prize for literature Mahmood Darwish, the famous Palestinian poet. He succeeded in building a perfect poetry project, a modern and deep one. |
| 10 | Deceased author I’d most like to jam with The Arab ancient poet and author Abu Al-Alaa’ Almaaree. The story goes that one day he was eating jam, and he was blind, so his beard was full of it. One of his students came and asked him to clean himself. He took that as a big humiliation and never again ate jam till he died. I want to have lunch with him and help him eat his favourite jam again. |
