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In the labyrinthine city of Jerusalem, poets woo their lovers with tales of jinns, lions, and warriors. Isaac, a night watchman, and Gabriel, an architect, pass each other in the streets, unaware, until a strange summer storm engulfs the country and their paths finally cross at Aunt Fatima's house. From that meeting desire blossoms, hesitates, withdraws, and returns, in a heady romance recounted by the sky itself, who cranes past rooftops and through windows to glimpse the soulful pair. Defying checkpoints and desert squalls, Gabriel and Isaac embark on a road trip to Jericho, Solomon's pools, and beyond—a daring act in this divided land.
Lyrical and languorous, Eden at Dawn is a fairytale in a war zone. With this second novel, lauded author Karim Kattan testifies that storytelling is the ultimate act of devotion.
“Karim Kattan plows his way into the literary world with novels with magnetic writing that take you far away, into a universe that is both sensual and political, of stunning beauty.”
— Alexandra Schwartzbrod, Libération
“Karim Kattan accomplishes, with this magnificent second novel, the most powerful act of which literature is capable: affirming the full and complete humanity of those to whom the world only grants a partial and conditional humanity.”
— Joy Majdalani, L'Orient-Le Jour
“Eden at Dawn, the first major homosexual work set in occupied territory, is a powerful rebuttal to prejudices about Palestine.”
— Jean Stern, Orient XXI
“A real and imagined Palestine, with its flowers, its pines, and the gentleness of its Mediterranean landscapes, offers a setting that is both sunny and terribly menacing and threatened. This is Kattan's way of keeping it alive and engaging.”
— Fifi Abou Dib, L’Orient littéraire
“A very beautiful, very sensitive book.”
— Nicolas Herbeaux, France Culture
“The writer-poet lets himself experiment and plays on the lyre string until it cracks and pierces the eardrums.”
— Cécile Dutheil de la Rochère, En attendant Nadeau
“Everything is true, even what is false. The novel, poetry, literature: that's what we're talking about here, and all at the same time.”
— Baptiste Thery-Guilbert, Diacritik
“A highly poetic, raw novel, full of the vitality of irony and orality, which makes tangible the glaring opposition between love and desire on the one hand, and violence and hatred on the other.”
— Kenza Sefrioui, Enass
“A magnificent novel.”
— Doan Bui, Bibliobs
“A sensual, lyrical, and unadorned language.”
— Faris Mounis, ActuaLitté