Plain Talk

By Mursi Saad El-Din

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When you're reviewing an anthology, you don't know where to start. But the task becomes even more difficult when the anthology is not devoted to one literary form, let's say poetry, but to every literary form under the sun: poetry, fiction and non-fiction.

And this is exactly the dilemma I'm in, trying to introduce the newly published NWIS (The Anthology of New Writing), volume 15, published by Granta Books and the British Council. The title reminds me of a WW2 publication, Penguin New Writing, but, naturally, the new writing of that age was by some who have since become veterans.

I have followed this series since it was first published and thanks to my friend Cathy, the head librarian at the British Council, I have not missed an issue. My first comment on the series is the change of editors for every volume. This spares the reader the idiosyncrasies of any one editor. Another remark is the diversity of the writers' nationalities.

I have tried to enumerate the geographical areas where the writers hailed from, but I failed. And I was happy to read in the introduction of the two editors Bernardine Evaristo and Maggie Gee (both famous novelists): "We did not think about where writers came from until we had decided what we liked most, and then we found our selection was extremely diverse." The anthology takes us "to Israel and Iraq, and after that to many parts of the globe where English is spoken: China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Japan, South Africa... to safari lodges and gay clubs, to the gentle world of British bookshops and the violent world of war, the factory floors and haunted languages".

This is what makes the contents fascinating reading: literary globetrotting, getting to know about customs and traditions, and ways of life.

With around 700 pieces received, the choice must have been difficult. There were entries by well-known writers like Julian Barnes and Doris Lessing, and up and coming young writers not yet recognised. In the editors' words, "Much of the best writing came from names unknown to us and perhaps to you also, which was a surprise and a delight."

It was indeed a delight to see that the first story in the anthology was "Down the Market" by Selma Dabbagh, who is described as "a British Palestinian writer, with a number of books (mainly short stories) to her name. Her story is about a brutal Israeli raid on a Palestinian settlement through the eyes of a Jewish teenager".

Then there is an extract from Marwan Al-Haj, a novel by Robin-Yassin Kassab, who was born in London to an English mother and a Syrian father. And yet his novel is about Iraq under Saddam Hussein. It is the story of Marwan Al-Haj who left Iraq forever in June 1982. Having been arrested, tortured, his wife killed by Saddam's men, he was suddenly released and given permission to leave Iraq, with his two children. The writer gives us details of his torture and his torturers, of the network of informers, party men, wardens, revolutionary guardsmen, police and soldiers, and he adds, "All of them with families. All of them with some poetry in the soul. But he'd learnt about the soul now. He knew what human beings really were." While the extract does not give away the plot, it becomes clear that it is about the life of Marwan as an immigrant in London.

Another interesting novel extract is by Kerri Sakamoto, apparently Japanese but living in Toronto, Canada. She is the winner of the Canada-Japan literary award. The novel is called The Mongolian Spot, and the extract is from Chapter One: "The Priest Who Lost His Followers" It is about a group of people gathered before a priest on the dock of Yakohama, a conspicuously motley crew. The passengers seem to be leaving, which makes the priest sad, "leaving them, and afraid for them being without him". Saying goodbye to his floc, he "once again waved to his new followers on the dock of the incoming ship".

I have, on purpose, concentrated on non-English writers, for two reasons. First I wanted to stress how far do their national backgrounds reflect themselves in their writing; and secondly to show, in the words of the two editors, that "the world of writing in English is rich, multiple, energetic and challenging".