The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist

ISBN: 1623717027

Author: Habiby, Emile

Condition: New

This award-winning novel-in-translation is clever tragicomedy that demonstrates the complex life of a Palestinian living in Israel.Saeed is the comic hero, the luckless fool, whose tale tells of aggression and resistance, terror and heroism, reason and loyalty that typify the hardships and struggles of Arabs in Israel. An informer for the Zionist state, his stupidity, candor, and cowardice make him more of a victim than a villain; but in a series of tragicomic episodes, he is gradually transformed from a disaster-haunted, gullible collaborator into a Palestinian-no hero still, but a simple man intent on survival and, perhaps, happiness.The authors own anger and sorrow at Palestines tragedy and his acquaintance with the absurdities of Israeli politics (he was once a member of Israels parliament himself) are here transmuted into satire both biting and funny. Translated by Anton Shammas into Hebrew, The Secret Life of Saeed won Israels foremost Prize for Literature; a stage version played to great acclaim for a decade.