Book launch/discussion: The Hidden Light of Objects

The Mosaic Room are pleased to present the UK launch of Mai Al-Nakib’s collection of short stories entitled The Hidden Light of Objects.

The Hidden Light of Objects is a collection of loosely connected short stories set mainly in the Middle East. They trace quiet, ignored moments in a region overwhelmed by geopolitical, military, and religious forces. Although the stories engage familiar events in the region—the invasion of Kuwait, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the civil war in Lebanon—the focus is on the everyday lives of people who live there. The stories are linked through character, place, tone, and, especially, a series of objects. The Hidden Light of Objects is about loss and memory, war and love, and the strange longing objects can unexpectedly trigger.

Mai Al-Nakib is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Kuwait University. Her academic research deals primarily with cultural politics in the Middle East. The Hidden Light of Objects is her first collection of short stories. She is currently writing her first novel.

Mai Al-Nakib will be in conversation with Selma Dabbagh. Selma Dabbagh is a British Palestinian writer of fiction based in London. Her first novel, ‘Out of It,’ set between Gaza, London and the Gulf has been listed as a Guardian Book of the Year in 2011 and 2012.