The Struggle for Daily Bread

They sleep on straw, are too poor to afford shoes, and they live on bread alone: in "Hunger" the Egyptian novelist Muhammad al-Bissati describes the world of poverty inhabited by the "little people" and their daily fight for dignity. By Volker Kaminski

Muhammad al-Bissati (photo: Lenos publisher)
Looking at society "from below": Muhammad al-Bissati

​​In Muhammad al-Bissati's novel the poor eat little else besides bread. And even this basic staple is often scarce so that they are forced to go hungry for days on end. Saghlul, a young man living in an Egyptian village, is so poor that he has to borrow shoes to wear to his wedding. He has been used to going barefoot ever since he was a child, and when his new wife, Sakina, later gets him some new "slippers", he "forgets them … somewhere" – without even noticing.

In "Hunger", al-Bissati devotes his attention to a problem that is "shockingly pertinent", as the intelligent and informative epilogue to the novel points out. The "hunger question" is in the meantime not only a pressing matter in poor countries like Egypt, but also affects more and more "wealthy" nations, where there are a growing number of people who "are poor – without work or receiving insufficient pay".

Although hunger is such an omnipresent problem in Saghlul's family of four that the two sons sometimes suffer from stomach cramps, they complain little about their plight. The situation may be dire, but the couple does not wallow in self-pity and hopelessness. Saghlul finds temporary work as a waiter in a café, and sometimes he offers his services setting up chairs in condolence tents where the bereaved congregate at funerals.

Saghlul is clever, and when he wants to work he usually finds a job. Often, however, he sinks into idle reverie; his family then has to go hungry because nothing can wrest him out of his apathy. At these times, all responsibility lies in the hands of Sakina, who has to exercise all her finesse to obtain something edible for her family.

Sparse language

These are the elementary issues in the struggle for survival, the daily fight for dignity, with which "Hunger" deals in a matter-of-fact, empathetic way. Using simple, sparse language – with many passages in the present tense and great deal of direct speech – the lives of the rural poor are portrayed. Al-Bissati succeeds in capturing the ups and downs of his protagonists' lives both believably and compellingly.

Street scene in Cairo (photo: AP)
The struggle for survival, the daily fight for dignity: al-Bissati's novels reflect the realities of Egypt's poor

​​Saghlul's restless and yet winning character comes across palpably; we feel like we can understand why not only his wife falls victim to his charm, but also – amazingly enough – some of the richer inhabitants of the village, who temporarily hire him as servant. Saghlul ponders the big questions about God and the ways of the world; he eavesdrops on students' political discussions and is fascinated by their astuteness.

Contributing to the credibility of a character like Saghlul is the loosely woven fabric of the text: a narrative that seemingly meanders without a clear goal, and which in places works like a mirror of Saghlul's own roving about, a continual digression, which however always finds its way back to the starting point.

The poverty of the "little people"

Sakina's family benefits from the fact that she is more realistic and ambitious than her husband. Through persistence, she finds work in the big house opposite, which belongs to an old widowed man. She manages his household, cooks, cleans and does the shopping.

source: Lenos publishing house
Shortlisted for the 2009 Arab Booker Prize: al-Bissati's "Hunger": cover of the book's German edition

​​The situation improves and the family of four is even allowed to move into the house; they now sleep in real beds and suddenly have enough to eat. But this happy state of affairs does not last long; when the owner of the house dies, the interlude comes to an end and the family must again sleep on straw.

There are many interesting episodes in this thin novel that reflect the world of poverty inhabited by the hapless people of this earth. For example the story of Abduh, a bakery employee who always gives scraps to the needy and who confesses to Saghlul's son his great love of fire. The flame in the oven is his lover, with whose moods and needs he is intimately familiar and who has already singed large stretches of his body with her heat.

A problem for all of society

Despite the critical aim behind his story, however, Al-Bissati does not fall back on moral accusations, and this is just what makes his novel so believable. He is able to put himself in the shoes of the "little" people, focusing our gaze on their thoughts, their fight to survive and the constant threat they face of being ostracized by society. The result is a highly wilful and original portrait of society "from below".

Al-Bissati, born in 1937 in Egypt, has been well-known as a novel writer in the Arab world for many years now. He has received several major awards. In 2009 "Hunger" was on the shortlist for the Arab Booker Prize. Five of his novels have been published in France. His novel "Houses behind the Trees" was published in German by Lenos Verlag in 2005 ("Häuser hinter den Bäumen"):

In the epilogue to "Hunger" the translator Hartmut Fähndrich places the novel in the context of well-known works of world literature that have addressed the same theme or share the same title, and contrasts these with Al-Bissati's book.

Al-Bissati is interested in depicting a "problem faced by all of society"; he focuses on "people's longings and unfulfilled dreams". These are portrayed in gripping words in this slim novel.

Volker Kaminski

© Qantara.de 2010

"Hunger", a novel, Lenos Verlag, Basel, 2010

Translated from the German by Jennifer Taylor

Editor: Lewis Gropp/Qantara.de

Qantara.de

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