Endings (1977, this
translated edition 2007) is set in the village of al-Tiba on the desert border
in Saudi Arabia. There is a drought again.
For its livelihood
al-Tiba relies on rain and agriculture. In the drought, market vendors have
nothing much to sell and they buy little. Money-lenders stop lending
money, decline to accept late payments, or insist on new terms: peasants
were required to sign over large segments of their land. ‘These money-lenders
did not make a token effort to show goodwill.’
In the drought, people
worry, people become angry, young men delay marriage or have austere weddings, and
they yell at the elderly about moving to the city. There has never been a year
like this before. There is an all-pervasive anxiety. Madness appears – or at
least madmen and maniacs.
The great maniac, Assaf, is between 40-50 years old, tall and skinny with a slight stoop. With
his loyal dog, he is a great hunter – not for pleasure, but for food. He hunts
birds – partridge, quail, and the like. He never kills female birds, but he
worries that other bird hunters do. He gives away his dead birds to those less fortunate than himself.
‘Al-Tiba knows how to
treat people harshly and also how to … show extreme kindness.’ The villagers also show cooperation and support. Food is left anonymously for the needy, disabled,
and widowed. The people in al-Tiba know how to tell stories – and they are
good listeners. And sons have returned, without ‘pleas or hints’ with a
powerful desire to do something. What about building a dam to irrigate the
land?
Four young city guests
arrive in al-Tiba. Assaf regards them as ‘insipid and naive bores.’ Assaf is
expected to take the guests hunting, which he does. In a sandstorm Assaf, on
foot, is separated from the two vehicles transporting the guests. The Desert
Corps rescues the guests, an hour from death. But where is Assaf? They notice
a vulture circling. Assaf and his dog are dead.
Assaf is taken back
to al-Tiba to prepare for his funeral. All night people stayed with the corpse
of Assaf, telling stories. The rest of the novel recounts the 14 stories from
that night. Although disguised as fictional, the stories are about a hunter, a
dog, birds, or the village. All are told for Assaf to hear, but the stories
had an emotional effect on everyone, especially the Mukhtar (the head of the
village): ‘everyone in the room had been sucked into a whirlpool of grief.’
In the longest night
in al-Tiba’s history, it was also ‘one of the most incredible nights in the
whole of al-Tiba’s history.’
While the novel seems
to focus on the bird hunter Assaf and his dog, it is not solely about him or
the village folk – it is about al-Tiba and generations of drought, which brings
the questions of its existence into sharp focus. With each generation the young
question the beliefs of the elders who try desperately to hang onto their town
and its traditions. Endings is therefore not just about the ending of Assaf’s
life, but of the endings of the past, and the present.
The novel itself is
clever in its austere story telling that mirrors the landscape, while
the 14 tales at Assaf’s funeral reveal each person’s attitude to their village, its people, its traditions and the forces of change.
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