![]() ![]() I actually picked this book only having skimmed through the description, with its main attraction for me being that it is by a Tunisian author and incorporates some of its culture. The book celebrates Tunisia’s rich oral culture, using wry, fatalistic humour. ![]() ![]() The story explores what happens in a country shaken by a revolution, once the world stops watching. But along the way, he passes through a country struggling with its new reality after the Arab Spring. Finding that a swarm of mysterious hornets is responsible, he sets out to find where they came from. One morning he wakes up to find his hives attacked and all their inhabitants destroyed, leaving him brokenhearted. The Ardent Swarm tells of Sidi, who lives a hermetic life, on the outskirts of a desolate north African village, and is a ‘bee whisperer’. He has written several novels of which The Ardent Swarm or L’Amas ardent was the first to be translated into English. Manai is a Tunisian born author who currently lives in Paris and explores interactions between past and present and tradition and technology in his writings. Today’s pick is The Ardent Swarm (2017) by Tunisian author Yamen Manai and translated by Lara Vergnaud. I tried not to be greedy but did end up picking up three of the books offered which stood out to me for different reasons. Today’s post is about a relatively recent entrant on my shelves, acquired from the offerings on World Book Day earlier this year. ![]()
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