Shamma Muhammad Council for Thought " It sheds light on the first Emirati novel to run for the Booker Award
Al -Ain on March 21/ WAM/ The Shamma Muhammad Council for Thought and Knowledge in the presence of Sheikha Dr. Shamma bint Mohammed bin Khaled Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sheikh Mohammed bin Khaled Al Nahyan Cultural and Educational Institutions, discussed the novel “The High School of Light” by Emirati writer Nadia Al -Najjar, who is nominated in the short list of the Arabic novel “Baker” for the year 2025.
The symposium was held in the presence of the writer, while the dialogue was conducted by Emirati writer Maryam Nasser.
At the beginning of the session, Sheikha, Dr. Shamma, welcomed the writer and members of the council, expressing her happiness to discuss a new Emirati text and creativity, noting that this novel is the first of the Emirates that nominates the short list of the Booker Award.
She said: “I received the news of the nomination of an Emirati writer for the short list with double happiness, not only because it is the first Emirati novel to top this list, but because it represents a model for the support provided by our wise leadership, and the product of the tender of Her Highness Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak“ Mother of the Emirates ”, President of the General Women’s Union, President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, the Supreme President of the Family Development Foundation, in supporting Emirati women in all fields.
Sheikha Shamma also described the novel as a human journey that moves between the layers of memory and the tales between the past and the present, where the senses are intertwined in two interfering frameworks.
She added: “Writing about the blind is a great risk, because it requires a deep understanding of his feelings, and how he realizes the world around him, but the writer succeeded in transferring us to the world of Noura, who, despite his darkness, remains luminous with her insight, as she succeeded in using the four senses in the novel to clarify a completely different world.”
Sheikha Shamma confirmed that the novel touched on an important era in the history of the Emirates and the Gulf community in the first half of the twentieth century, as photographs were keys to understanding history and memory.
She also indicated that the “texture of light” is “a touch of self -awareness and self -perception and history”, praising the presentation of “Noura” as a model of the ability to create a bright world despite the challenges.
Then, Sheikha, Dr. Shamma, asked several questions to the author, including the relationship between the narrative and academic text when dealing with history, and the “Ali” model in the novel and whether it was inspired by historical personalities.
She also asked about the writer’s choice of Amal Al -Sahlawi (I am afraid that we will all be uncle, we are going in eternal circles of life) at the end of the novel and its impact on the text.
For her part, the writer Nadia Al -Najjar thanked the Sheikh Shamma for hosting her, and praised the deep reading of the novel.
She also answered the questions that were asked during the symposium, explaining how it blended the realistic history of the Gulf region and the fictional imagination, and how the pictures were a bridge between the past and the present, stressing that the novel was able to explore the human experience from a close perspective, especially in dealing with the issue of people with determination.
The attendees were unanimously agreed that the novel “The Texture of Light” was able to illuminate a dark sky, as its characters as drivers of light are spread in a journey of self -search amid the transformations of the Emirati society between the past and the present.
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