Tayeb Salih - Famous Publication

Famous Publication

• Mawsim al-Hijra ila al-Shamal, 1966 (in English as Season of Migration to the North, 1969)

Season of Migration to the North is narrated by a young man who returns to his village of Wad Hamad in the northern Shamaliyah province in Sudan, after studying in Europe for seven years " (Wachtel,2002),eager to make a contribution to the new postcolonial life of his country. Once back, the narrator discovers a stranger among the familiar faces of childhood the enigmatic Mustafa Sa’eed. Sa'eed takes the young man into his confidence, "telling him the story of his own years in London in the early part of the twentieth century, of his brilliant career as an economist, and of the series of fraught and deadly relationships with European women that led to a terrible public reckoning and his return to his native land" (Lalami, n.d).

Salih achieved immediate acclaim when theSeason of Migration to the North was first published in Beirut in 1966. In 2001, the book was declared “the most important Arabic novel of the 20th century” by the Arab Literary Academy.

The novel was also banned in Saleh's native Sudan for a few years despite the fact that it won him prominence and fame worldwide (Tayeb Salih (n.d)). However, the novel was adapted in a theater production and was directed by Ouriel Zohar. Actor Mohammed Bakri received the Best Actor award at the Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre in 1993 in his role in it.

• Urs' al-Zayn, 1969 (know in English as The Wedding of Zein)

"The Wedding of Zein is a comic novella by Sudanese author Tayeb Salih centering on the unlikely nuptials of the town eccentric, a fellow named Zein. Tall and odd-looking, with just two teeth in his mouth, Zein has made a reputation for himself as the man who falls in love over and over with girls who promptly marry other men- to the point where mothers seek him out in hopes that he will draw the eye of available suitors to their eligible daughters." (The Boston Bibiophile, 2010)

The “The Wedding of Zein” was made into a drama in Libya and won Kuwaiti filmmaker, Khalid Siddiq, an award in the Cannes Festival in the late 1970s.