Jordanian-Palestinian Dystopian Novel Wins Arab Booker Prize

Jordanian-Palestinian writer Ibrahim Nasrallah poses for a photo after winning the 2018 International Prize for Arabic Fiction. (AFP)
Jordanian-Palestinian writer Ibrahim Nasrallah poses for a photo after winning the 2018 International Prize for Arabic Fiction. (AFP)
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Jordanian-Palestinian Dystopian Novel Wins Arab Booker Prize

Jordanian-Palestinian writer Ibrahim Nasrallah poses for a photo after winning the 2018 International Prize for Arabic Fiction. (AFP)
Jordanian-Palestinian writer Ibrahim Nasrallah poses for a photo after winning the 2018 International Prize for Arabic Fiction. (AFP)

Jordanian-Palestinian writer Ibrahim Nasrallah’s “The Second War of the Dog” won on Tuesday the 2018 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), the most prestigious annual Arab award for novel-writing, currently in its 11th edition.

His dystopian novel, published by Arab Scientific Publishers, beat out five other shortlisted candidates from each of Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Palestine.

Each of the shortlisted entries were awarded $10,000, while the winner was presented with an additional $50,000 during a ceremony in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. The novel will also be translated into English.

Before the winner was announced, head of the jury Jordanian theater critic Ibrahim al-Saafin was quoted by Reuters as saying: “These novels tackle social, political, humanitarian and existential issues.”

The nominated novels “strongly address current problems and crises facing Arabs,” he added.

They tackle the major challenges hindering man’s progress and liberation from fear, elimination and oppression, expressing a yearning for freedom, justice and equality, he continued.

Nasrallah's book was chosen from among 124 entries from 14 countries for the award, which is affiliated with Britain's prestigious Man Booker Prize.

He told the IPAF after his shortlising: “The novel was written to provoke the reader, to worry the reader, to even, sometimes, make them breathless. ‘The Second War of the Dog’ is, in my opinion, a warning of what we could become in the future.”

“The novel starts off at the moment of a loss of certainty, that loss of trust in those whom you interact closely with – that neighbor, brother, father, or whoever it may be. The novel suggests that if we continue on our current path, we will reach a future where we would become mostly annihilistic,” he told IPAF according to its official website.

IPAF was launched in Abu Dhabi in 2007. It handed out its first prize to Egyptian novelist Bahaa Dhaher in 2008. Successive winners have come from Lebanon, Kuwait, Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.



One Man Gored, 7 Others Bruised in Spain's Bull Running Festival

'Mozos' or runners take part in the second Running of the Bulls during the Sanfermines festival in Pamplona, Spain, 08 July 2025. The San Fermin festival runs until 14 July 2025. EPA/Daniel Fernandez
'Mozos' or runners take part in the second Running of the Bulls during the Sanfermines festival in Pamplona, Spain, 08 July 2025. The San Fermin festival runs until 14 July 2025. EPA/Daniel Fernandez
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One Man Gored, 7 Others Bruised in Spain's Bull Running Festival

'Mozos' or runners take part in the second Running of the Bulls during the Sanfermines festival in Pamplona, Spain, 08 July 2025. The San Fermin festival runs until 14 July 2025. EPA/Daniel Fernandez
'Mozos' or runners take part in the second Running of the Bulls during the Sanfermines festival in Pamplona, Spain, 08 July 2025. The San Fermin festival runs until 14 July 2025. EPA/Daniel Fernandez

A man was gored and seven others lightly injured on Tuesday, the second day of Pamplona's San Fermin festival in which thousands of people line the medieval city's narrow streets for the centuries-old tradition of running with bulls.

The man who was gored, identified only as being older than 25, was injured by a bull horn under his right armpit, a spokesperson for the city emergency services said.

"At this time, he is under observation but is in stable condition," she told reporters.

The seven others suffered bruises and contusions, some in the shoulder or head, Reuters reported.

In the festival's "encierros", or bull runs, fighting bulls are set loose in the streets and then race to reach the bullfight arena. Hundreds of aficionados, many wearing traditional white shirts with red scarves, run with them.

On Tuesday morning, one of the bulls stopped in the middle of his run, and charged the runners for several tense minutes.

The festival, which gained international fame from Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises", lasts for one week in early July.

Participants are occasionally gored at the hundreds of such bull-running fiestas in Spain every year. Other injuries are common. At least 16 runners have lost their lives at the Pamplona festival down the years, the last in 2009.

As well as the morning bull runs and afternoon bullfights, the San Fermin festival features round-the-clock singing, dancing and drinking by revelers.
There are also religious events in honor of the saint.