"Except Their Messenger": A collection of short stories; a fleeting thought that shatters into textual coordinates befitting the present, and characters who have left their chessboard to experience swift, controversial events in an arena that, for all its breadth, seems narrowly unknown. They are left to move as they please, but they find their paradox in being 'checkmated'.

What is striking in this collection is the "unnamed" nature of the characters, not just because it is flash fiction or minimalist, nor because it intensifies the narrative condensation. These are characters with no purpose in the world of the text other than to play their role without a writer or director. They have their freedom within a few words before they depart, to be replaced by others on that stage. The stage ultimately remains alone, for the reader to find themselves ascending it and donning the creator's mask in a new cycle that begins from the reader to the creator.

By: Dr. Ahmed Khalifa

• Author: Yousef Al-Jawarneh
• Publisher: Alan Publishers and Distributors
• Year of Publication: 2024
• Number of Pages: 84
• ISBN: 978-9923-13-684-3