Additional information
by Huzama Habayeb (Author), Kay Heikkinen (Translator)
WINNER OF THE NAGUIB MAHFOUZ MEDAL FOR LITERATURE
WINNER OF THE 202 SAIF GHOBASH BANIPAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC LITERARY TRANSLATION
ONE OF THE 50 MOST IMPORTANT ARABIC NOVELS OF THE 21ST CENTURY (THE NATIONAL) "This is a deeply human book. . . . a masterwork."-Omar El Akkad, LitHub A novel of enormous power and great beauty, in which a Palestinian woman raised in a refugee camp learns to sew which helps her to construct a life
Author Biography
Huzama Habayeb is a Palestinian writer who was born and raised in Kuwait, where she started writing and publishing short stories, poetry, and journalistic pieces as a student. When the Gulf War erupted in 1990, she fled to Jordan and established her reputation as a short-story writer. Her first novel, Root of Passion, was published in 2007 to wide critical acclaim. Velvet is her third novel and her first to be available in English.
Kay Heikkinen is a translator and academic who holds a PhD from Harvard University. She was previously Ibn Rushd Lecturer of Arabic at the University of Chicago. Among other books, she has translated Naguib Mahfouz's In the Time of Love and Radwa Ashour's The Woman From Tantoura. She lives in Seattle, Washington.
