Alessandro Spina

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Alessandro Spina
BornBasili Shafik Khouzam
1927
Benghazi, Libya
Died2013
Pen nameAlessandro Spina
OccupationNovelist, Businessman
NationalityItalian
Notable worksI confini dell'ombra (The Confines of the Shadow, 2006)
Notable awardsBagutta Prize (2007)

Alessandro Spina (1927–2013) was the pen name of Basili Shafik Khouzam. Born in Benghazi into a family of Syrian

Mondadori and Garzanti. His major opus was I confini dell'ombra, a sequence of eleven historical novels and short story collections that chart the history of his native city from the Italo-Turkish War in 1911 to the exploitation of Libya's vast oil reserves in 1964. Although Khouzam individually published each instalment of his epic throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the entire sequence was finally issued as a 1268-page omnibus edition by Morcelliana in 2006 [2] and was then awarded the Bagutta Prize in 2007. His work has been compared to that of Paul Bowles and Albert Cossery[3]

Bibliography

  • Tempo e Corruzione (Garzanti, 1962)
  • I confini dell'ombra. In terra d'oltremare (Morcelliana, 2006)
  • Diario Di Lavoro: Alle Origini De I Confini Dell'ombra (Morcelliana, 2010)
  • L'ospitalità intellettuale (Morcelliana, 2012)
  • Elogio dell'inattuale (Morcelliana, 2013)

Translations

I confini dell'ombra is currently being translated into English by

DARF Publishers.[4] Spina has also been translated into French. The first three novels of The Confines of the Shadow were translated by Gérard Genot as Triptyque Libyen (L'Âge d'Homme, 2013),[5] while one of his short stories appeared in a translation by Michel Balzamo as Juin 1940 (Éditions de L'Herne, 2009).[6]

References

  1. ^ Naffis-Sahely, André (July 29, 2014). "Spina's Shadow" – via www.thenation.com.
  2. ^ "Morcelliana, antico e nuovo testamento, sacra scrittura, teologia, filosofia, letteratura cristiana antica, esegesi biblica". September 23, 2014. Archived from the original on September 23, 2014. Retrieved October 9, 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ^ Lindsey, Ursula (October 1, 2015). "A Stage Across the Sea" – via www.thenation.com.
  4. ^ "The Confines of the Shadow by Alessandro Spina - book review". The Independent. July 30, 2015.
  5. ^ "Tryptique libyen - Le jeune maronite / Les noces d'Omar / Le visiteur nocturne Alessandro Spina". March 4, 2016. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 22, 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. ^ "L'Herne – Alessandro Spina". www.editionsdelherne.com.