HWJN (English 2nd Edition)

Saudi novelist Abbas’ sci-fi debut takes place in two overlapping worlds as a young Jinn reaches out to a human in another dimension.
Hawjan, his mother and grandfather have occupied the same house for years. However, they’re powerless to prevent a young human woman named Sawsan and her family from moving into their home in a parallel dimension. As a result of the new occupants, Hawjan—a man in his 90s, still a youth in the Jinn people’s eyes—is pushed to the outskirts of his longtime home. Despite this, he’s surprised to find himself drawn to Sawsan and even more surprised that he’s able to communicate with her—first through a Ouija board and then by simply typing to her on his tablet. Soon, he finds himself in love with her, pining over the unbridgeable gap. Later, evil Jinn have plans for Hawjan, and they’re not afraid to use Sawsan as a bargaining chip. Hawjan later promises his firstborn son to a dark king and teams up with Sawsan’s human suitor to save her life. This sci-fi novel provides an appealing glimpse into a different mythological tradition. The biggest problem for American readers, however, may be the book’s matter-of-fact patriarchy; sentences such as “There is, in my opinion, a strong relationship between feminism and childhood” may be hard for some Western feminists to stomach. (It can’t be denied, however, that American sci-fi also suffers from a glut of male-dominated narratives.) Abbas and translator Bahjatt are the co-founders of The League of Arabic SciFiers, which has the stated objective of bringing the genre to a wider audience—certainly a noble goal. Unfortunately, in this novel’s case, Bahjatt’s translation is often awkward and occasionally incorrect (as in the apparent confusion of “feminism” with “femininity” above).
More of a curiosity than a compelling read for an American sci-fi audience.