Strangers in the Arab world

A celebrated translator's collection of superbly crafted short stories set within the region.

Denys Johnson-Davies is best known as an Arabic-to-English translator, having worked on books by Nobel Prize winner Najeeb Mahfouz among other notables and having won acclaim for popularising Arab literature.

However, in this collection of short stories, Johnson-Davies proves that his abilities as an author are equal to his celebrated talents as a translator.

First published in 1999 under the title Fate of a Prisoner — the title of one of the stories — this collection has been re-released under a new title this year by Dubai-based Jerboa Books.

The link that runs through most of the stories is their setting and cast: nearly all involve a Westerner in the Arab world.

This is a theme Johnson-Davies himself is uniquely qualified to write about. Born in Canada, he was raised in Egypt, Sudan and East Africa and has been a long-time resident of Egypt.

Indeed, there are few Westerners who know the Arab world quite as intimately as him or who can empathise as well as he can with the Westerner's functioning — sometimes thriving, sometimes floundering — in the Middle East and the wider Muslim world.

But these 15 stories, despite having this thread to connect them, are nothing if not varied, showing how diverse the region is in terms of its landscape, traditions and people.

Surprise package

Like many successful short-story writers, such as Raold Dahl and Jeffrey Archer, Johnson-Davies keeps the reader hanging onto every word right to the end where the reader might encounter a twist in the tale. He makes no effort to sanitise his stories, often giving them endings that are as shocking as they are unexpected.

Take Oleanders Pink and White, for example. This story is about a less than cultured Briton who, while driving through the desert in the UAE, encounters a young Bedouin girl.

The outcome of their chance meeting takes the reader's breath away with its violence and graphic detail.

Similarly, Open Season in Beirut, a tale of a bloodthirsty cameraman in search of the perfect film sequence for his documentary, has a horrific end.

Among the most intriguing stories is Fate of a Prisoner, which at 30 pages is also the longest tale in the collection. It is set in a fictitious Gulf country and centres on a British police chief put in a tricky situation by his leader about the fate of a policeman who kills one of his fellow officers in a fit of rage.

But not all of the stories deal with people caught in the middle of violence or its consequences. In The Dream, which is set in Cairo, a teacher eventually resolves the dilemma over whether to retire to his home in Ireland or remain in Egypt, handing over his responsibilities to others as he makes up his mind.

Coffee at the Marriott is about a wife stumbling upon a secret from her husband's past.

This is a fine collection of stories, beautifully written in a very readable style. It provides a good overview of this fascinating part of the world and its inhabitants, both expatriate and native.

It is also a good decision by Jerboa Books to re-release this book in the UAE so that it can gain a wider audience among residents keen on enjoying literature set in this part of the world. But its strength is such that these tales of human weakness, violence and dilemma have universal appeal. The only regret with Johnson-Davies is that, he has rarely exercised his talents as a writer, perhaps being too engrossed with his highly respected translations of other's works.