The Transmigration of Bodies Faraj Bou al-Isha

The Transmigration of Bodies Faraj Bou al-IshaA plague has brought death to the city. Two feuding crime families with blood on their hands need our hard boiled hero, The Redeemer, to broker peace. Both his instincts and the vacant streets warn him to stay indoors, but The Redeemer ventures out into the citys underbelly to arrange for the exchange of the bodies they hold hostage. Yuri Herreras novel is a response to the violence of contemporary Mexico. With echoes of Romeo and Juliet, Roberto

not least the position of a white man in a Jamaica whose decolonisation has been in part about discovering its black identity

— Jewish Historical Studies

frogs and mice

Alice Johnson

Among the book reviews in Banipal 47 are reviews of works by two winners of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction: Saudi Arabian author Abdo Khal’s winning novel Throwing Sparks

negotiating internal and external boundaries of identity and meaning

the latter being short-listed for the Forward prize for the best first collection

intellectual freedom and creativity in the Arab world and establish important cultural initiatives: Ziad Rahbani

There are arresting images on almost every page

a rattlesnake

Cumbria and Hong Kong

and jocular mind