Voices of the Lost

Reviews

'Emotionally punchy.'

'Spare and deep, Voices of the Lost captivates. Hoda Barakat is one of Lebanon's greatest gifts to literature, and Booth allows her English audience to explore this painful and irresistible present.'

'An astonishing novel, superbly translated from the original Arabic, in which grave, naked confessions are delivered by characters orbiting in motion. It is a fierce, challenging exploration of the extremities of rootlessness and desperation, rendered in a shocking clarity of voice.'

'Hoda Barakat's new novel reveals to us the many faces of power, war, love and despair as destinies mysteriously intersect, and all certainties are shaken. Through these letters, we glimpse the hidden story of immigration: characters condemned to suffer for nothing more than being born in the wrong place.'

'Drawing on the power of testimonial, Hoda Barakat's characters relate tales of loss, regret, and displacement. Beautifully written and filled with a raw, audacious honesty, these lost and found letters draw readers into an extraordinary embrace and refuse to let go.'

'Hoda Barakat is one of the most versatile and innovative novelists in the Arab world. Here, in a fugue of undelivered letters, she etches the portraits of a series of existential refugees, lost between countries, languages, and lives.'

'A subversive novel that examines sorrow, longing, violence, kindness, and compassion. The places may be named, but the protagonists are nameless. We love them because they are us.'

‘A writer for our times: her prose is at once reflective and morally astute. Her novels possess a gravity in their confident, thoughtful style that bursts with tension and profound emotion.'

‘A short, deeply intense novel. A book of shadows which shows us the cracks threatening the modern Arab world.'

‘Anger, despair and passion are lyrically expressed...the beauty of her writing does nothing to detract from the candour of this narrative.'

‘Hoda Barakat offers a penetrating insight into the minds of people whose inner lives are all too often dismissed without a second thought.'

‘In a style that is by turns precise and sumptuous, Hoda Barakat... tirelessly explores themes of metamorphosis, of madness, of countries left behind, and of journeys with no hope of return.'

‘An immensely talented novelist.'

'The tragedies in Voices of the Lost are agonising...[a] searing prizewinner.'

'So many universal human themes are touched on in this outstanding novel that it is impossible in these few words to do them, or it, justice… Every one of us will find something in these pages that reflects our own experience… Though our paths may be different, we are all ultimately united in seeking truth, freedom, compassion and forgiveness.'

'This intense, raw and human novel which does not shy away from showing life's fallibilities, feels both hopeless and hopeful… [Barakat] isn't tone deaf to the tragedy the Middle East has recently seen nor does she believe it makes up one person's entire story and identity.'

'Voices of the Lost manages to pull off quite a feat. This is a novel about war, it is a political novel. It is also a novel about love, ranging from filial to romantic, abuse, trauma, fatherhood, motherhood, it's all in there. Like a piece of tapestry this novel weaves in themes, which create [a] multi-layered result… a one of a kind novel… [Booth's translation] is fantastic and captures the emotions of all the characters. Having won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, I would not be surprised to see it garner more awards this year.'