Dar Athar Publishing, Dammam, released a new novel entitled “Min al Katra” (“From the Window”) by Dr. Abdelaziz M. al-Qahtani. With a simple language and flowing narrative style, the book explores the ambiances in a village, in Asir region, where people live a modest and complication-free life. The novel also sheds light on the daily rituals and the warm social connections among families, offering the readers an intimate and special social scenery.
“I wanted to write a novel with imaginary events and characters inspired by the beautiful language and details of Asir. The book opens a window on beautiful things such as creating happiness with simple things, and making life decisions that bring us inner glory. We say Asir, we hear beauty, heritage, and culture. I can’t document all the heritage or culture of the city in one text, my novel is not a historic document, and I don’t have real events to report; I just used details like the accent and the names of the local garments,” al-Qahtani said in the introduction.
“Although the characters are imaginary, we could see many that resemble them with the same compassion, kindness, and good influence. Here, I tried to highlight some of Asir’s terms, starting with the title “Katra” which means ‘window’. Readers will also read various events and stories about struggle and hard work. The novel shed lights on a large region with many legacies and traditions,” he added.
The novelist said he didn’t live in Asir, but he loved it and heard about its culture, heritage, and history from the community surrounding him. “I read many books about Asir from which I got the idea of the ‘window’ or ‘katra’. There are many events that I didn’t actually live because of my young age, but hearing my parents and relatives narrating them with warmth urged me to imagine the scenes. I also added some events that I imagined and inspired from the accent and traditions. The story of the novel takes place between the 1940s and the early 1990s,” he explained.
“The route is obscure with no lightning. I crossed the distance in four and a half hours. From 9:00 pm until dawn, they rode the donkey. Sometimes children rested, sometimes they walked to reach Abha. The unpaved route is fenced with several villages. It is scary and empty, but the will to safely arrive to the Gulf comes before everything. In every step, Khadija was imagining darkness as light, and the sun on the foreheads of her children for whom she is making all these efforts. She wants to live for them and to protect them and embrace them,” a paragraph of the novel reads.
