The Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation invites you to an evening with the translator and the author of the prize’s winning novel The Bamboo Stalk.

Jonathan Wright, who won the prize a second time with his translation of The Bamboo Stalk, is joined by the novel’s young Kuwaiti author, Saud Alsanousi, in conversation with journalist Ben East.

The evening is introduced by Carnegie Medal-winning children’s writer Melvin Burgess.

“Ambitious, cultivated and brave.” Financial Times review of The Bamboo Stalk
“A ‘page-turner’ translation with a universal appeal.” Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize judges

The novel examines problems of race, religion and identity through the life of a half-Filipino, half-Kuwaiti young man, who moves from an impoverished life in the Philippines to return to his father’s Kuwait – a ‘paradise’, as his Filipina mother has described it to him since he was a child.

Alsanousi’s gift for storytelling illuminates his intricate, satisfying saga of three generations of two very different families: the poor Mendozas in Manila and the high-status al-Taroufs in Kuwait. He gets inside his youthful narrator’s poetic sensibility, and his writing is fresh and immediate. Jonathan Wright’s seamless English rendering does full justice to the original, exhibiting a sureness of touch that fully captures the spirit of the Arabic version.

This event is free, but booking is essential. Book your tickets here.

Doors open 6.30pm  |  All welcome  |  Plus Reception  |  Copies of The Bamboo Stalk will be on sale