Author Samiha Khrais launched her book "A Journey with Pessoa" on Monday evening at the Abdul Hameed Shoman Cultural Forum in Amman.
Speaking at the launch event—which was attended by an elite group of writers, academics, and literary figures alongside Khrais—were writer Siwar Al-Subeihi and fiction writer and academic Dr. Hisham Miqdadi, with the ceremony moderated by writer and publisher Jafar Al-Aqeeli.
اضافة اعلان
Recently published by "Al-Aan Publishers and Distributors" in Amman, the book features an imaginary dialogue conducted by Khrais with the Portuguese author Fernando Pessoa. The work transcends traditional reading boundaries to become a dual existential experience—blending an exploration of Pessoa's texts with an introspection into self, memory, and the world.
The book's style relies on a dual discourse: outwardly a conversation with Fernando Pessoa, and inwardly a dialogue with the self. Khrais draws Pessoa in as a mirror or a catalyst to express what cannot be stated directly, recognizing that talking about the self is exposed and embarrassing. Thus, she enlists another voice to soften the weight of confession, transforming Pessoa himself into a narrative device.
In his contribution to the launch ceremony, Dr. Miqdadi noted that what distinguishes the book linguistically and stylistically is its mystical, evolving devotion to the word. He highlighted that the author is enamored with letters—hearing their whisper and sensing their weight, scent, and shadows—while strongly championing the novel as a lavish prose structure accommodating the chaotic expanse of human knowledge and arts.
He pointed out that Khrais bitterly critiques the contemporary disregard for grammar and syntax, describing those who are ignorant of grammatical inflections as killers of the word, causing letters to be uttered limping and soul-less. Language, as she views it, is "the backbone, the secret of secrets, and the Holy of Holies."
In turn, Al-Subeihi noted that as the book's chapters progress, Pessoa transforms from an intellectual mirror into a key unveiling the author's most personal pages and her accounts of her most painful personal experiences. This exemplifies literature's capacity to bring together two souls who never met, within an imaginary forest invented by Khrais to host a human dialogue transcending time and cultures.
For her part, Khrais said: "It was not in my plans to slip away from the struggle of writing a novel—which sometimes proves stubborn and at other times yields—to fully devote myself to a journey with the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. He was not previously present in a strong sense within my consciousness or knowledge; all I knew of him were mere charming poetic fragments that I drew upon when writing my novel Slaves' Peanuts to grant the Portuguese setting realism and make its characters convincing. Even when I picked up his book The Book of Disquiet at a book fair, I delayed reading it for a long time. But when I finally did, an entire dazzling world awoke before me."
She explained that she wrote "A Journey with Pessoa" in a relatively short period for a novelist who typically grants her works years to mature.
At the conclusion of the event, Khrais signed copies of her book for the attendees.
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