Abduh Khal [ Saudi-Arabia ]

Biography

Gast des ilb 2009.

Abduh Khal was born in 1962 in Jizan, in south-western Saudi Arabia. He studied political science at the university of King Abdul Aziz in Jeddah. From the early 1980s he worked for various Saudi Arabian newspapers. He currently edits the cultural section of the newspaper »Ukaz« and is a co-editor of »Ar Rawi« magazine.

In his stories and novels, Khal ventures into the social wilderness of Saudi society. He remorselessly portrays the changes in interpersonal relationships following the founding of the Kingdom, hectic modernisation, the economic boom and the enforced Wahhabi branch of Islam. In an interview the author emphasises the central role which the setting plays for him in his works: »The location is a living person which provides the structure and the style«. For Khal this is the area around Jizan, the everyday life there, and the region's traditional literature.

An example of this is the novel »Mudun ta´kulu ushb« (1998, tr: Cities Eat Grass). Yahia is the central figure in the story. The young man has to leave his home town in order to earn a living after the death of his father. He travels to Jeddah, where he soon comes face to face with the dark side of life in this rapidly changing city. After political tensions arise in the south, he returns home, anxious for his remaining family, only to find that no one is there awaiting him.

In subsequent following works Abduh Khal retains these polar settings of Jeddah and Jizan. He probes urban and village life in Saudi Arabia with some intensity. Themes which occur frequently in other Saudi authors' books, such as the presence of the Bedouin or the oil fields, have no place in his work.

In his latest novel, »Tarmi bi shararin« (2009, tr: She Sparks), Abduh Khal places the development of the city of Jeddah and its inhabitants in the centre of the story. He describes, with no concern for taboos, the changes, ranging from a humble fisherman to a powerful political figure.

Abduh Khal lives in Jeddah.