Abbas Beydoun discusses The Autumn of Innocence at the 2017 Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. Mona Al Marzooqi / The National
Abbas Beydoun discusses The Autumn of Innocence at the 2017 Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. Mona Al Marzooqi / The National

Abu Dhabi Book Fair 2017: Lebanese writer Abbas Beydoun on his award-winning novel The Autumn of Innocence



Abbas Beydoun is tired of excuses. The 72-year-old Lebanese author and poet urges readers and writers to avoid complacency – and to always look beyond the surface.

To explain why, he highlights the central theme of his acclaimed novel, The Autumn of Innocence, which tackles the nature of tyranny.

“It’s not good enough to look at violence as just something abnormal or new to us,” he says.

“Violence doesn’t just fall from the sky. It comes from our ethics and our behaviours. It comes from ourselves and we have to be aware of that.”

Published last year by Beirut publisher Dar Al Saqi, the novel struck a chord with Arab readers and won the literature category of the Sheikh Zayed Book Awards. Beydoun received his award, including a cash prize of Dh750,000, during a ceremony at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair yesterday.

Set in an Arab village, The Autumn of Innocence revolves around the relationship between a domineering father and his easy-going son. Dismayed by his son's intransigence, the father arranges his murder.

Beydoun describes the novel’s surreal narrative style as “fantasia” – pronouns shift rapidly and the work is laced with symbolic names and imagery. The lyrical aspect of the novel stems from his poetry, for which he is arguably more renowned.

Born in the village of Sur, in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, Beydoun worked as a journalist before publishing numerous volumes of poetry, which have been translated into various languages, including French and German.

Selections of his work have also been translated into English and published in Banipal magazine. His 2002 novel, Tahlil damm, was also published in English, under the title Blood Test.

Beydoun credits Tyre’s coastal landscape for influencing his writing.

“My work is concerned mostly with this idea of returning, in all its various ways,” he says.

“A lot of it started in Tyre. I remember one of my earliest writing experiences – when I was young, I would sit by the coast and write poems about the sea in front of me. Then I wrote more lines about the buildings around it. Then before I knew it, I was also writing about the city.”

In The Autumn of Innocence, a fictional village and the events that happen there serve as a metaphor for Arab countries currently in turmoil.

“When you live in an environment that is tyrannical, when injustice seeps in from the power dynamics to the political and social, and when you are living that day in and day out – well, violence becomes almost second nature,” he says.

“It is played out in relationships with men and woman and parents over children.”

Another striking aspect of the novel is how stark it is. There is no escaping the enveloping dread, and the father and son are seemingly resigned to their fates.

Beydoun is dismissive of the suggestion that novels should necessarily provide a sliver of hope.

“As an author, I allow the reader to interpret the work as they see fit,” he says.

“It is not my job to oppose any interpretation – but I would like to state the novel is, in itself, a pessimistic art. It provides a sense of checks and balance to society. It is very rare to find a novel that says society is doing a grand job.”

He adds that pessimism suits Arab writers. “That desperation allows them to become brave and express their ideas,” he says. “They have less to lose.”

Beydoun says more of that bravery is required from his peers. He puts the lack of daring Arab writers down to a warped regional perception of what it means to be an intellectual.

“There is this idea that the intellectual is someone who reads this or that – you can call such people knowledgable at best,” he says.

“The intellectual is one who poses ideas and fresh perspectives. They often have a good opinion of themselves and they feel they have the right to express their ideas.”

• The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, concludes on May 2. www.adbookfair.com

sasaeed@thenational.ae

Ain Dubai in numbers

126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure

1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch

16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.

9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.

5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place

192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.

Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
 
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
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Cricket World Cup League 2

UAE squad

Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind

Fixtures

Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE

UAE v IRELAND

All matches start at 10am, and will be played in Abu Dhabi

1st ODI, Friday, January 8

2nd ODI, Sunday, January 10

3rd ODI, Tuesday, January 12

4th ODI, Thursday, January 14

How to get there

Emirates (www.emirates.com) flies directly to Hanoi, Vietnam, with fares starting from around Dh2,725 return, while Etihad (www.etihad.com) fares cost about Dh2,213 return with a stop. Chuong is 25 kilometres south of Hanoi.