راس أنجلةRas Anjela

A novel about the constant flight from fate. The protagonist, Nadia, first escaped when her mother and siblings fled with her from a merciless father. Her second escape came after settling in Bizerte, when masked men stormed her apartment, pointing their weapons at her chest. She sought refuge in France, where Nadia was haunted by the constant urge to flee from a French husband who loved her but was deeply troubled, his participation in the Afghan war having plunged him into fits of violence from which she was not spared. From whom do we truly flee? From what? And where to? Is there any safe place on this earth at all? Her brother, Nawfel, fled dreaming of a new beginning in Italy, but the sea, unforgiving to migrants, swallowed him up. Her sister, Linda, who failed as a singer, dreamed of wealth, but was swallowed by the glittering cities. The novel revolves around the bitter reality that drives people toward unsafe migrations, and it shows that the West is not always paradise - a refuge from the hell of the East's crises - for it too is mired in its own crises. It also sheds light on illegal immigration and the history of immigrants to the West, on racism in both the East and the West, and on the discovery of the self and the other, all while capturing the magic of joyful childhood moments. Ines Abbassi is a Tunisian poet, writer, and translator (born in Tunis, 1982). She won the Best Tunisian Poetry Book Award in 2004 for Secrets of the Wind, the Danish Institute Award in Damascus for her story War of 2012. Her stories and poems have been translated into French, English, Korean, Swedish, Danish, and Spanish.