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This Side of Innocence, tells the story of one man's run-in with the secret police of his unnamed, war-torn country. The novel's real story, however, is about the deeply obscure events of a personal encounter with tyranny -- the tyranny of the instability and chaos of a country at war with itself and consequently preyed upon by internal and external threes. In the end, we are left with the story of how one man (or country) can, innocently, invent his own executioner.
About the author
Born in Lebanon in 1945, Rachid al-Daif is the acclaimed author of eleven novels and three volumes of poetry. Of the novels, three have been translated into English: Dear Mr. Kawabata, This Side of Innocence, and Passage to Dusk. Paula Haydar is professor of Arabic at the University of Arkansas and the translator of al-Daif’s This Side of Innocence and Elias Khoury’s The Kingdom of Strangers. Her most recent project is a translation of Palestinian novelist Sahar Khalifeh’s A Hot Spring. Adnan Haydar is professor of Arabic and comparative literature at the University of Arkansas. He has authored, co-authored, or co-edited six books, including Naguib Mahfouz: From Regional Fame to International Recognition. He has published many translations from Arabic, including Jabra Ibrahim Jabra’s celebrated The Ship.
