In a Nutshell:

Thirteen Months of Sunrise depicts the lives of ordinary people living in contemporary Sudan. It is a slim collection of 10 short stories. My personal favourite was the first and the story that gives the collection its title.

Themes:

Isolation, urban living, human experience, love.

A Quote:

“Perhaps the abaya I was wearing reminded him of home, perhaps that’s what drew him to me. When you’re homesick, you yearn for anything familiar: people, language, signs, anything. We feel differently towards these things than we do when we’re nestled in our country’s embrace.”

An Observation:

Published by Comma Press, this book is Mamoun’s debut collection and was shortlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.

Author: Rania Mamoun

Rania Mamoun is a Sudanese activist, novelist, and writer. Mamoun has published two novels in Arabic, Green Flash (2006) and Son of the Sun (2013), as well as the short story collection Thirteen Months of Sunrise (2009). 

Translator:Elizabeth Jacquette

Elisabeth Jaquette is a translator from Arabic. She holds an MA from Columbia University, a BA from Swarthmore College, and was a CASA Fellow at the American University of Cairo. Her work has been published in The Guardian, Words Without Borders, and Asymptote Journal, among other places. She is also the Arabic reading group chair for UK publisher And Other Stories.

Book Details:

Publisher: Comma Press

Publishing Date: 09.05.2019

A bit about me!

A bit about me, my name is Jess Andoh-Thayre. I am from Brixton, South London. I currently live in Cambodia. Before living here in Cambodia, I lived in Tanzania with my husband, who is a diplomat. I have also lived in Chile and Spain. I am a French, Spanish and English as an Additional Language (EAL) teacher. I recently qualified as a SENCo (Special Educational Needs Coordinator). After taking three years off to have a baby in a pandemic and also retrain, I have just returned to work as an Elementary Learning Support Teacher.