Every Muslim has heard of al-Andalus, where Europe meets Africa, where the Mediterranean almost closes its lips. It’s a land of sonority and luminosity, a storied land, an imagined land.
Robin Yassin-Kassab
Failed states, Pakistan-specialist Anatol Lieven declared afterwards, don’t hold literature festivals. Perhaps Lieven assumed too much: there are festivals in Iraq and Palestine. And novelist Mohammad Hanif provided a grimmer perspective during his very well-attended and gently provocative session when he said ‘even places that don’t have running water want to have a literature festival now.’
Robin Yassin-Kassab recounts his journey to Iraqi Kurdistan to meet writers who’ve lived through the worst of the country’s recent past.
Cairo felt different. Tahrir Square, of course, carried a new set of meanings.