Though THE GIRLS OF RIYADH, the debut novel by Rajaa Alsanea (left) is only being published now in the Western world, its original publication two years ago not only incited controversy and bestsellerdom but a new license for Saudi writers to get published. Reuters’ Andrew Hammond reveals that Saudi Arabia’s literary output doubled in 2006, with half of the authors women, and publishing industry insiders suggest the growing interest is partly due to Alsanea’s book.
“I see ‘Girls of Riyadh’ as a turning-point for readership in Saudi Arabia,” said Hassan al-Neimy, a short story writer who heads a group of Saudi literati called Hewar, Arabic for Dialogue. “The boldness of the book got women writing in the same style, publishing their own daily experiences.” Around 50 novels were published in 2006 compared with 26 in 2005, al-Neimy said. Exact figures are hard to establish since some were published outside Saudi Arabia and are hard to obtain. Novelists publishing inside Saudi Arabia normally submit their work to the ministry of information in advance. Only a handful are technically banned, but many writers resort to Arab publishers outside Saudi Arabia and leave individual bookstores inside the country the choice of whether to risk importing them.
So far, few Saudi novels have made it into translation for world audiences but that could be changing, says Abdallah Hassan, project editor at the American University in Cairo Press, which this year published work by Saudi author Yousef Al-Mohaimeed. “Foreign publishers have become interested in Arab fiction, especially from Iraq and Saudi Arabia. It’s become a window to the Arab world,” Hassan said, while adding that Arabic literature was generally a “tough sell”.