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Lebanese Hoda Barakat Wins Arab Booker Prize

Lebanese writer Hoda Barakat, photographed in 2015 after she was short listed for the Man Booker International Prize (AFP Photo/ADRIAN DENNIS)
Lebanese writer Hoda Barakat, photographed in 2015 after she was short listed for the Man Booker International Prize (AFP Photo/ADRIAN DENNIS)
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Lebanese Hoda Barakat Wins Arab Booker Prize

Lebanese writer Hoda Barakat, photographed in 2015 after she was short listed for the Man Booker International Prize (AFP Photo/ADRIAN DENNIS)
Lebanese writer Hoda Barakat, photographed in 2015 after she was short listed for the Man Booker International Prize (AFP Photo/ADRIAN DENNIS)

Lebanese author Hoda Barakat won the Booker International Prize for Arabic fiction for her novel “The Night Mail”.

In a statement, the Chair of Judges, Charafdine Majdouline, said: "The Night Mail is a highly accomplished novel that stands out for its condensed economy of language, narrative structure, and capacity to convey the inner workings of human beings. By choosing to use techniques well-known in novel writing, Barakat faced a challenge, but she succeeded in creatively innovating within the tradition to successfully convince the reader.”

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) is the Arab world’s prestigious literary prize.

Barakat received her award at a ceremony held at the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr in Abu Dhabi.

A summary published on IPAF website said “The Night Mail” tells the stories of letter writers.

“The letters are lost, like the people who have penned them, but each is linked to another and their fates are woven together, like those of their owners. The writers are foreigners, either immigrants by choice or forced by circumstance to leave their countries; exiled and homeless, orphans of their countries with fractured destinies,” it said.

“The novel’s realm is — like the times we live in — one of deep questioning and ambiguity, where boundaries have been erased, and old places and homes lost forever,” it added.

Barakat is a Lebanese novelist, who was born in Beirut in 1952. She has worked in teaching and journalism and currently lives in France. She has published six novels, two plays, a book of short stories and a book of memoirs.

Barakat received the ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ in 2002 and the ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite National’ in 2008. Her novels include: The Stone of Laughter (1990), Disciples of Passion (1993), The Tiller of Waters (2000) which won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in that year, and My Master and my Lover (2004). Her fifth novel, The Kingdom of This Earth (2012), reached the IPAF longlist in 2013. In 2015, she was a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize, given (at that time) every two years to honor a writer’s overall contribution to fiction on the world stage.

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Varieties

Japan Issues New Yen Banknotes Packed With 3D Hologram Technology to Fight Counterfeiting

The 10,000 yen bill, worth about $62 at the current exchange rate, has the face of Eiichi Shibusawa, known as “the father of Japanese capitalism - The AP
The 10,000 yen bill, worth about $62 at the current exchange rate, has the face of Eiichi Shibusawa, known as “the father of Japanese capitalism - The AP
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Japan Issues New Yen Banknotes Packed With 3D Hologram Technology to Fight Counterfeiting

The 10,000 yen bill, worth about $62 at the current exchange rate, has the face of Eiichi Shibusawa, known as “the father of Japanese capitalism - The AP
The 10,000 yen bill, worth about $62 at the current exchange rate, has the face of Eiichi Shibusawa, known as “the father of Japanese capitalism - The AP

Japan issued its first new banknotes in two decades Wednesday, yen packed with 3D hologram technology to fight counterfeiting.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida praised as historic the state-of-the-art anti-counterfeit traits of the new 10,000 yen, 5,000 yen and 1,000 yen bills.

“I hope the people will like the new bills, and they will help energize the Japanese economy,” he told reporters at the Bank of Japan, The AP reported.

While the new bills were released with fanfare, currency already in use will remain valid. In fact, people will still need older bills to use most vending machines and to pay bus fares, local media reported.

Kishida noted the people featured on the bills celebrate Japanese capitalism, women’s equality and scientific innovation.

The 10,000 yen bill, worth about $62 at the current exchange rate, has the face of Eiichi Shibusawa, known as “the father of Japanese capitalism,” a key figure in building Japan’s modern economy. He is credited with founding hundreds of companies.

The 5,000 yen bill, worth about $30, features Umeko Tsuda, a pioneer feminist and educator who founded a college. The 1,000 yen note, worth about $6.20, portrays physician and bacteriologist Shibasaburo Kitasato, who was instrumental in the research of tetanus and the bubonic plague.

The backs of each of the bills feature Tokyo Station, wisteria flowers and ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai’s Mount Fuji, respectively.

The new bills also feature larger printing so they’re easier to read, especially for the nation’s aging population.

By the end of March next year, nearly 7.5 billion new banknotes will have been printed, according to the government. The amount of money in the new bills going out in a single day is estimated at 1.6 trillion yen ($10 billion).

It may take some time for ordinary people to get hold of the new bills. They first are going to banks and other financial organizations. Then, they'll be distributed to automatic teller machines and stores, according to the Bank of Japan.

A majority of transactions in Japan still are done in cash and cashless payments have been slower to catch on than in many other countries.

“Although the world is moving toward cashless interactions, we believe cash remains important as a way for safely settling payments anywhere and anytime,” said Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda.