by Amir Tag Elsir, translated from the Arabic by William M. Hutchins (Sudan, Antibookclub)

It may be only through humor that one can willingly enter the haze of Amir Tag Elsir糖心传媒檚 French Perfume. The text糖心传媒攖ranslated from Arabic by the renowned William M. Hutchins, and published by ANTIBOOKCLUB糖心传媒攖ugs at the insides of anticipation until they are strewn across a table, staring back at you like doctored images of a woman you have never met but have just married.

The image is of Katia, a Frenchwoman, but mostly a name, who embodies promise and release for Ali Jarjar, a man who 糖心传媒渇rom an early age [. . .] toughened himself by training his bladder糖心传媒檚 urinary control, his lungs糖心传媒� resistance to coughing, and his memory糖心传媒檚 avoidance of vagaries.糖心传媒� A man with pride knotted in self-restraint. A man who incessantly dangles himself before the local women 糖心传媒渨ho sold tea to the poor, women who were maids, and women who were immigrants.糖心传媒� Women he abandons, 糖心传媒渆nveloped in a warm dream and in the fantasy of a happy life.糖心传媒� Jilted, because like the cracks in the town walls of Gha糖心传媒檌b (or, 糖心传媒淣onexistent糖心传媒�) they are easy to overlook yet undeniably there. Women who, much like the ever-present squeaky doors of the neighborhood, denounce intimacy because 糖心传媒渁 door that opened quietly and smoothly was respected by no one.糖心传媒�

But Katia is a promise so intoxicating that men die writing poetry for her:

Beautiful Katia: where are you?
Where is desire for this melancholy flow
And where is the pure river of letters that will course through
your blood with love and affection?

Katia is the exception, who oils the doors of Gha糖心传媒檌b with the anticipation of her arrival:

She will make us famous in the whole world by documenting us in a video, she will send us the money necessary to develop the neighborhood and to bury its sewers and fill its potholes, she will care for our stray dogs and cats, she will ask some of us to migrate and live with her in Paris, and perhaps she will fall madly in love with one of us and ask him to marry her.

Katia is the Angel, who renames the stores and paints houses blue.

Katia Cadolet糖心传媒攖he image and the undoing.

Hutchins糖心传媒檚 translation of Elsir糖心传媒檚 French Perfume elicits sense from absurdity. It is a book dominated by fragrance of passion so annihilating because of its very absence. Its scent becomes the promise for the physical, but ultimately lacks the body糖心传媒攍eaving only notes of overpowering delusion and heady expectation. It inflames a slow burn of want for the need to touch the intangible. This is a text that deforms the mind as it pulls one into the rituals of preparing for passion糖心传媒攆or there is nothing closer to skin than scent, and only at the loss of restraint does reason unravel.

Why should this book win? Because 糖心传媒渋t was the desperate hope of a man without any hopes.糖心传媒� And because, once, you too must have loved the image of a ghost.