The Riddle of Qaf (Brazil)

ISBN: 9781906300036 Price: £8.99 Click on image to BUY

By Alberto Mussa
Translated by Lennie Larkin

ALI BABA and his forty colleagues were not thieves but philosophers; Pythagoras’s theorem of the triangle was inspired by a crucifixion in Jerusalem; and the greatest demon Sinbad had to face was not mythical, but cannibal. These are clues offered to those presumptuous enough to try solving the riddle of Qaf.

Alberto Mussa, a Brazilian of Lebanese descent,  heard this riddle as a poem at his grandfather’s feet. He believes it is an unrecognised muallaqat, the pre-Islamic poems suspended from the kaaba, one of Islam’s most sacred places. In the great tradition of these epic Arabic poems the poet protagonist of The Riddle of Qaf relates his quest through the deserts of Arabia to find the woman he loves, but whom he has never seen.

The Riddle of Qaf’s 28 chapters correspond to the letters of the Arabic alphabet as it takes a journey through time, cultures and the nature of language itself, in search of the solution that will ensure love prevails.

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‘The Riddle of Qaf is crammed with allusions to classical literature and cod-scientific theories and it makes free (and unapologetic) use of myths and legends suc as Aladdin, Scheherazade and Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. It is all gloriously tongue-in-cheek and great fun.’
- New Internationalist

‘Alberto Mussa has taken a completely unexpected path in Brazilian literature with a rewriting of Arab mythology. He has done so with a creative assuredness.’
- Jornal do Brasil

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New Internationalist