Elias Khoury Working on ‘Sequel’ to /Gate of the Sun/?

In her report on the World Literature Weekend in London, Susannah Tarbush has a short sentence on (the great) Elias Khoury’s future:

Khoury’s latest novel is due to be published in Arabic in December, and he is now working on a sequel to “Gate of the Sun.”

Khoury’s sun seems finally to be rising in the English-reading world. His The Journey of Little Gandhi is new in paperback (1989), his White Masks (1981) came out for the first time this spring, and earlier in the month the Financial Times ran this short Q&A with Khoury. A few of his answers:

What book changed your life?

All the books I love – I can write my life story through the books I have read. But, if I had to choose one, One Thousand and One Nights is a book that never ends; it opens the relationship between reality and the imaginary.

…

What are you most proud of writing?

In 1982-1983, when Lebanon was under Israeli occupation, I published a series of articles under the name “The Time of Occupation”. It was very courageous and I’m proud of that young man.

Also, Khoury will be teaching Modern Arabic Lit at NYU Abu Dhabi in January 2011. The course description notes: “We will read masterpieces of modern fiction, from Tayeb Saleh to Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, and from Huda Barakat to Hanan Al Sheikh, dealing with topics related to modernity, social change, gender, prisons.” (All these authors are listed, of course, in our Summer Reading Challenge.)