Hoda Barakat; translated by Marilyn Booth
Winner of the 2019 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, Voices of the Lost by Hoda Barakat, translated from the Arabic by Marilyn Booth, is in a three-part structure. Part 1, Those Who are Lost, consists of a series of letters to and from unnamed individuals in unspecified countries in the Arab world. Part 2, Those Who are Searching, consists of several monologues by the intended recipients of the letters who never receive the letters but who present events from their perspective. The final section, Those Who are Left Behind, is a monologue by a postal worker sheltering in a bombed-out post office. He has sorted and registered the letters in the hope they will eventually be delivered.
Part 1 is by far the largest part. The letters, addressed to a former lover or family members, are confessional. A woman writes to her former lover. An escaped torturer begs forgiveness from his mother for torturing, maiming, and killing while he was a member of the secret police. A sister writes to her brother explaining why she became a prostitute. The letters never arrive to their intended recipients. They are discarded in hotel rooms, storage lockers, and airports to be picked up by complete strangers who are then prompted to write their own letters in a chain that tangentially links the letters.
The format is interesting and well-executed. The contents of the letters reveal individuals living on the margins of society. They suffer from poverty, childhood trauma, and abuse. Some are illegal immigrants or criminals hiding from authorities in a European country. A few of the letters are very disturbing, describing violence, rape, and domestic abuse in graphic detail. The writers seek understanding and forgiveness for their past actions. Their tone is fatalistic—as if fate dealt them a poor hand and they had no option but to pursue the path they did.
Barakat’s portrayals are sensitive and nuanced. She gives voice to individuals denied voice by mainstream society—the criminals, the prostitutes, the homeless, the refugees, and the desperate. The letter-writers have in common they escaped from their war-ravaged countries. They are alienated, isolated, and bereft of support structures. Some generate sympathy; others generate absolute horror. But all emerge as real individuals suffering from serious, deep-seated wounds.
Although there is a smattering of hope embodied by the nameless postman who continues to sort letters in anticipation of better days, the tone throughout is unabashedly bleak. Its value lies in depicting those relegated en masse to the periphery of society as unique individuals whose powerful and angst-ridden voices deserve a hearing.
Recommended.