The beginning and end of the author Adam Haslett's new novel are set in the Gulf, although he has never been to the region. "That's one of the reasons I'm excited about coming to Abu Dhabi," he says.
The beginning and end of the author Adam Haslett's new novel are set in the Gulf, although he has never been to the region. "That's one of the reasons I'm excited about coming to Abu Dhabi," he says.

Flush with drama



Adam Haslett admits that the advance acclaim for Union Atlantic, his just-published first novel, might be something of a double-edged sword. "The first great novel of the new century that takes the new century as its subject. It's big and ambitious, like novels used to be. It's about us, now. All of us," trumpeted Esquire magazine. "Union Atlantic will possibly be the quintessential American novel of the first decade of the 21st century," heralded the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, while The Guardian arts section gushed from the Frankfurt Book Fair: "This year's hot read is a first novel by American Adam Haslett - It's kind of a parable for our time." Thanks to the financial crisis and "all the headlines about banking, the novel piques people's attention", says the 39-year-old writer, speaking from his home in Brooklyn before coming to Abu Dhabi for the International Book Fair, where he'll be a featured author. "But it's only the backdrop I've chosen to play out a drama that goes beyond banking." Besides, he adds with a laugh, "I didn't think I could write a novel about interest rates. That would be a bridge too far for readers." Haslett - shortlisted for both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for his debut collection of short stories, You Are Not a Stranger Here - could make any subject and any setting compelling. The writer's gift for language, his unerring eye, his honesty and his compassion for his characters, many of whom are deeply flawed and deeply troubled, puts him in the company of the best authors writing in English today. "Adam Haslett's tone is one of delicate, understated heartache - he never lets the reader forget that he is shining an unflinching light on those types of human suffering that cannot be cured, only endured," wrote The Sunday Times when the stories were published in 2002. This might sound like fiction to be endured, but in Haslett's hands, there's also humour, insight and a shard of hope. In Notes to My ­Biographer, the first story in You Are Not a Stranger Here, a man in his seventies, bipolar and driving those around him mad, has a moment where the beauty of the world shines through. Taking in the lights along the boulevards of Santa Monica, he realises: "I've always found the profusion of lights in America a cause for optimism, a sign of undiminished credulity, something to bear us along." Yet Haslett felt he needed "a ­broader social scope" than the short story for his next book. "Union Atlantic is more outward-looking. It deals with issues of public significance," he says, though he acknowledges that "my same preoccupations" - estrangement and the desire to connect - are very much present in the novel. "Each character is seeking intimacy with varying degrees of ability and success." The first character that came to Haslett in what would be a five-year writing process was Henry Graves, the president of the US Federal Reserve. "Henry is sitting in his ­office, looking down at people on the street," he says. "There's a billboard of a Seurat painting outside and Henry's thinking about that and the banking crisis. There was something in that image that made me think about the people making these totally abstract decisions. You move a decimal point and it all changes. I wondered: what is the mind that sits in that chair?" Henry is one of the more sympathetic characters - certainly the most stable - among the novel's quartet of complicated personalities: Harry's sister, Charlotte, argues with two beloved dogs who have begun to speak to her in accusing, punitive voices; Doug Fanning, a veteran of the first Gulf war, and a rising, if opportunistic, star at Union Atlantic Bank, is Charlotte's next-door enemy since building a mansion on what seems to be her land. Then there's Nate, a lost boy of 17 who tumbles into all their lives. "Nate was the last character to come into focus," says Haslett, who spent the first two-and-a-half years "working on individual characters with only a hazy sense of how they were going to connect. They were like continents which had yet to drift together." While each character in this very American novel has a distinctive voice - even the dogs - he sometimes worried how "one world of words could come together with another world of words. I was always trying to press these characters into one world". Still, the greatest challenge, Haslett admits, was "finding the rhythm of the language that reflected the interior life of each character". This is what matters most to him and what ultimately makes reading his stories so emotionally satisfying. "Fiction," he says, "has the power to take you into the texture of the experience of another person." Fanning, one of Haslett's least likeable, honourable or transparent characters, someone whose experience a reader might feel even reluctant to share, dominates Union Atlantic. "Doug is an angry person," admits Haslett, explaining that he observed "two strands in American culture during the Bush years: militarism and the financial bubble. In both spheres certain kinds of male anger are the main emotion. Just look at the present day: the rage of bankers that they're not getting their bonuses. I felt that Doug was channelling a dominant emotion in American life." Of course, Doug must face a reckoning - Haslett is a deeply moral writer, though never instructive - and will find, by the novel's end, a channel of sorts for his demons. The novel's beginning and end are set in Bahrain and Iraq, respectively, with Haslett capturing the physical sense of the region so well that it's difficult to believe he's never been here. "The parts of the novel set in the Gulf are all based on research," he says. "That's one of the reasons I'm ­really excited about coming to the Abu Dhabi book fair." But before arriving in the UAE capital, he's been on a cross-US tour and taken in a book fair in Paris. It's a public life for a basically private person. Haslett, a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, as well as a graduate of Yale Law School (he's never practised), laughs when asked about something he said in an earlier interview: that silence and patience feed his imagination. "It feels like an act of resistance to this culture to be quiet," he says. Still, Haslett meditates before starting to write most mornings, then turns off his phone and avoids the internet "until I'm done for the day. These are very practical things which I think are important". Because of a packed speaking and signing schedule - Union Atlantic came out in the United States two weeks ago - he'll only be in Abu Dhabi for a few days. But he's hoping for at least one quiet afternoon: "I really want to go out to the desert," he says. ? Adam Haslett will be at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, appearing at the Kitab Sofa with the former National Review editor Peter Baker, on Thursday from 8-9pm. Haslett will sign books afterward.

Pad Man

Dir: R Balki

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Radhika Apte

Three-and-a-half stars

Europe’s rearming plan
  • Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
  • Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
  • Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
  • Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
  • Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
 
Started: 2021
 
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
 
Based: Tunisia 
 
Sector: Water technology 
 
Number of staff: 22 
 
Investment raised: $4 million 
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20M3%20MACBOOK%20AIR%20(13%22)
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A State of Passion

Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi

Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah

Rating: 4/5

DSC Eagles 23 Dubai Hurricanes 36

Eagles
Tries: Bright, O’Driscoll
Cons: Carey 2
Pens: Carey 3

Hurricanes
Tries: Knight 2, Lewis, Finck, Powell, Perry
Cons: Powell 3

2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups

Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.

Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.

Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.

Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.

Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.

Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.

Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.

Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The%20specs
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THE SPECS

      

 

Engine: 1.5-litre

 

Transmission: 6-speed automatic

 

Power: 110 horsepower 

 

Torque: 147Nm 

 

Price: From Dh59,700 

 

On sale: now  

 
Biography

Favourite Meal: Chicken Caesar salad

Hobbies: Travelling, going to the gym

Inspiration: Father, who was a captain in the UAE army

Favourite read: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter

Favourite film: The Founder, about the establishment of McDonald's

Profile

Company: Justmop.com

Date started: December 2015

Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan

Sector: Technology and home services

Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai

Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month

Funding:  The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups. 

COMPANY%20PROFILE
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESmartCrowd%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESiddiq%20Farid%20and%20Musfique%20Ahmed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%20%2F%20PropTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24650%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2035%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%20institutional%20investors%20and%20notable%20angel%20investors%20(500%20MENA%2C%20Shurooq%2C%20Mada%2C%20Seedstar%2C%20Tricap)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs

Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8

Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm

Torque: 881Nm at 4,800rpm

Transmission: 8-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 19.6 l/100km

Price: Dh380,000

On sale: now 

Company%20Profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Alaan%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202021%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Parthi%20Duraisamy%20and%20Karun%20Kurien%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%247%20million%20raised%20in%20total%20%E2%80%94%20%242.5%20million%20in%20a%20seed%20round%20and%20%244.5%20million%20in%20a%20pre-series%20A%20round%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Vidaamuyarchi

Director: Magizh Thirumeni

Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra

Rating: 4/5