Nihad Siries
(Syria, 1950) was a construction engineer before becoming a renowned writer in the Arab world. In addition to novels he writes popular tv series. His novel The Silence and the Roar (2004), this year appeared in a Dutch translation and is still of topical interest. Siries' great strength is that he succeeds in turning fear into humor. The international press compared him to Orwell, Kafka and Kundera. In his novel Siries describes the commemmoration of the twentieth year in power of a ruler. A cheering crowd blocks the streets. The writer Fathi Chin, a man in his thirties and an opponent of the regime, wants to visit his mother but is swept along by the frantic crowd. When a woman falls, he helps her and ends up in a hospital and in the tentacles of bureaucracy. He ends the day in the arms of the beautiful Lama - in a country where sensuality between two walls is the only freedom left.
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Archive available for: Nihad Siries
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Syria, What's Next?
With: David Van Reybrouck, Ghayath Almadhoun, Laila al-Zwaini, Lieve Joris, Nihad Siries
Watch the video-registration of this programme. What will the future of Syria look like once the war has come to an end? Moderator and writer David Van Reybrouck discussed this question with the Syrian novelist Nihad Siries and the Palestine/Syrian poet Ghayath Almadhoun. Both are in exile. They read from their work, and met Laila Zwaini, a researcher on shari'a, rule of law, tribes, and social change in the Arab and Muslim World. They were joined by the Belgium writer Lieve Joris, who wrote a book about Syria. Will Syria go the same way as Iraq, where the attempt to establish a democracy has failed completely? Will it, in all its religious and ethnic diversity, ever become a stable state? Could it ever become the home that the Syrian authors in exile dream of?
This evening is in English. A programme of B Unlimited, organised by Writers Unlimited in co-operation with The Hague Central Library, and with support of the Municipality of The Hague, PEN Netherlands and Theatre of Wrong Decisions. Curated by Tom Dommisse.
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The Text of my Life: Nihad Sirees
Which texts from world literature has Syrian writer Nihad Sirees cherished as long as he lives? This most beautiful or most inspiring text can be a poem, an excerpt from a novel or a song-text. He discusses the text with the audience. In English.
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The Turning Point
Tonight three authors talk about their drives, motivations and inspiration for taking up a career as a writer in an often violent and complex world. Architect Andries Samuel, documentary maker and BBC reporter Aminatta Forna and constructional engineer Nihad Sirees decided to turn to fiction at a certain point in their lives. Andries Samuel, the son of Antjie Krog, made his debut in 2013 with the book of poetry Wanpraktyk. In her latest novel The Hired Man Forna sketches the fermenting tension in postwar Croatia. Nihad Sirees' great power is that he succeeds in turning fear into humor in his novel The Silence and the Roar. What compelled these three people to start writing? In English.