Aaliya, a reclusive, divorced 72-year-old former bookseller in Beirut, has spent decades secretly translating great works of world literature into Arabic for no one but herself; over one Beirut winter she reflects on her life, literature, and the war-scarred city around her.
Books mentioned in An Unnecessary Woman (69)
The Keeper of Sheep by Fernando Pessoa: Epigraph, credited to Pessoa's heteronym Alberto Caeiro
Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan: Epigraph: "—Richard Flanagan, Gould's Book of Fish"
The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: “Someone had to read Eliot's The Waste Land as ... Sabra burning”
The Waves by Virginia Woolf: “Yourcenar also translated Virginia Woolf's The Waves.”
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway: “Named among books faced out on the shelf”
Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth: “Named among books faced out on the shelf, "recently arrived in Beirut"”
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner: “Named among books faced out on the shelf”
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski: “I couldn't read Borowski's This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen without clutching the edge of my desk.”
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: “The book she is dismantling page by page and hiding throughout the novel”
Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald: “This year, I translated the superb novel Austerlitz”
The Emigrants by W. G. Sebald: “translating Austerlitz was an easier project than The Emigrants”
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky: “In a silly essay on Crime and Punishment, a critic suggests that Raskolnikov is the epitome of the Russian soul.”
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky: “Pevear and Volokhonsky "began with the most difficult Russian bear of all, The Brothers Karamazov"”
The Color Purple by Alice Walker: “A few years ago, The Color Purple appeared on television after the news.”
Ethics by Baruch Spinoza: “if he hadn't written Ethics—if he hadn't developed the concepts of religious freedom...”
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong: “devoured the racist Fear of Flying”
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov: “It was so long ago that I'm not certain he'd even published Lolita yet.”
The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa: “"When we start again, we'll do The Book of Disquiet."; quoted at length later”
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje: “I loved The English Patient as a novel, but the movie ... is much too syrupy.”
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett: “I've read Waiting for Godot three times and I still can't tell you what it is about.”
Murphy by Samuel Beckett: “'Irrational heart'—I love the phrase, read it in Murphy years ago”
Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke: “Carries "the most recent French translation of Rilke's Duino Elegies" in her handbag”
The Sonnets to Orpheus by Rainer Maria Rilke: “Quoted at length: "From Rilke's The Sonnets to Orpheus: Even the trees you planted as children..."”
How I Came to Know Fish by Ota Pavel: “Two of my favorite books are The Emigrants and Ota Pavel's How I Came to Know Fish.”
Sophie's Choice by William Styron: “I first heard of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in Styron's book Sophie's Choice—a beautiful if somewhat soppy novel”
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert: “If you think Madame Bovary commits adultery because she's trying to escape the banality...”
Richard II by William Shakespeare: “we must heed Bushy's advice in Richard II”
Lana: The Lady, the Legend, the Truth by Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein: “The book he wished me to consider was Lana: The Lady, the Legend, the Truth.”
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann: “Does that explain The Magic Mountain?”
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño: “The Savage Detectives required nineteen months”
2666 by Roberto Bolaño: “I've decided on Roberto Bolaño's unfinished novel 2666”
Cinnamon Shops by Bruno Schulz: “Ah, Cinnamon Shops is still one of my favorite books.”
Microcosms by Claudio Magris: “The top book on the pile is Microcosms by Claudio Magris.”
Sepharad by Antonio Muñoz Molina: “In the early pages of his gorgeous novel Sepharad, Antonio Muñoz Molina writes...”
Ransom by David Malouf: “A scion of a Lebanese immigrant wrote a novel retelling Priam's pleading with Achilles for Hector's body, David Malouf in Ransom, a masterful book.”
A Heart So White by Javier Marías: “I've translated two of his novels: A Heart So White and Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me.”
The World as Will and Representation by Arthur Schopenhauer: “Read over two years with Hannah: "Le monde comme volonté et comme représentation"”
The Science of Right by Immanuel Kant: “In The Science of Right, Kant wrote, 'Marriage is the union of two persons...'”
A Short History of Decay by Emil Cioran: “In A Short History of Decay, Cioran wrote: 'life in common thereby becomes intolerable...'”
The Task of the Translator by Walter Benjamin: “In 'The Task of the Translator' he wrote: 'No translation would be possible...'”
Death of a Traveling Salesman by Eudora Welty: “my heart behaved 'like a rocket set off,' from Welty's 'Death of a Traveling Salesman.'”
Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway: “one of the few Hemingway stories that I don't find wholly insufferable, 'Hills Like White Elephants'”
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes: “Opening line of the novel: "Don Quixote's misfortune is not his imagination, but Sancho Panza."”
Iliad by Homer: “the most touching scene from the twenty-fourth book of the Iliad is carved into the old stone”
The Mu'allaqat (The Suspended Odes): “"The Suspended Odes, the Hanging Poems, seven poems from seven poets before Islam"; her paperbacks of the Muallaqat”
La Chute (The Fall) by Albert Camus: “As Camus said in The Fall: “Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful.””