Professor Hanaa E-Book

Reem Bassiouney

• Herausgeber: Garnet Publishing
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

On the eve of her fortieth birthday Egyptian academic, Professor Hanaa, finds herself alone and unloved. For twenty years she has battled with an impossible love for an unattainable colleague, and has become outcast in a society where family and friends mean everything. Her life is organised into endless routines, and her emotions are hidden behind a facade of stern, but joyless professionalism. The facade begins to crumble, however, when her birthday brings with it the realisation that she is about to turn into an embittered, forty-year-old spinster. Never one to admit defeat, Hanaa determines she will lose her virginity before her birthday, and sets her sights on Khalid, her teaching assistant. An earnest, hardworking and devout young man, Khalid is an unlikely accomplice; however Hanaa's powers of persuasion know no bounds. What ensues is a lively, witty, often sly commentary on gender and power relationships in both academia and the Arab world-a 'campus' novel of a wholly different bent.

Leseprobe

PROFESSOR HANAA

Reem Bassiouney

Translated from the Arabic by Dr Laila Helmi

PROFESSOR HANAA

Published by Garnet Publishing Limited 8 Southern Court South Street Reading RG1 4QS UK

www.garnetpublishing.co.ukwww.twitter.com/Garnetpubwww.facebook.com/Garnetpubgarnetpub.wordpress.com

Copyright © Reem Bassiouney, 2011 Copyright © (Translation) Laila Helmi, 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

First Edition

ISBN: 978-1-85964-320-4

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Typeset by Samantha BardenJacket design by Garnet PublishingCover photograph © Reg Charity/CORBIS

‘Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story… the pen has been in their hands.’Jane Austen

To every Middle Eastern woman who holds a pen to write her own story. Whatever type of pen! For hers is the honour of trying.

And to every Egyptian who loves passionately, hates passionately

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 1

There are days in life that are quiet and dull, and others that pass in a rush of ecstasy. There are days full of indolence, of restlessness. And then there are days … oh God!

This day in particular seemed endless and depressing, even more so than usual, because today was her birthday. Her fortieth.

Twenty years ago she had vowed that on her fortieth birthday, she would throw a huge party and invite her husband, his relatives and her children’s friends, that she would extend the invitation to all officers and employees, to housewives and all those in authority, to decision-makers and self–made men – and to all workers and peasants.

The day had come, but Hanaa was alone in her spinster’s den, and as solitary as a wild cat.

Spinster. What an awful, terrifying word!

She was not a spinster and did not look like forty at all. Looking at herself in the mirror, she looked like thirty; twenty perhaps. She was still petite, and her wrists slender and fragile. How does a woman grow old? When her wrist loses the charm of youth. But her wrist was full of charm. Her small, sharp features had not changed; they were still like those of a little squirrel. Her figure had not lost its grace. Even the faint wrinkles around her eyes were hardly visible.

It was a well-planned but unsettling day, and despite her courage she hardly knew how to face it. Still, she managed to stay organized as usual, and wrote down her plans for the day.

At nine, she would visit her former professor, who had suffered a light stroke, in hospital. After that, she would try once more to meet with her department head, and finally she had to prepare to travel to the conference the next day.

Only one thing possessed her: one idea nagged at her mind.

She would go to the head of the department while still a virgin.

She would prepare for the conference while still a virgin.

She would turn forty while still a virgin.

The very idea filled her with disgust. There had to be a way out. Her virginity was strangling her, wrestling her to the ground. Her virginity, which she had guarded so jealously for years now, had become her arch enemy. Who was worthy of deflowering Professor Hanaa? Had that man been born yet?