"The Passion Seller"... Haidar Qandil belongs to the resigning generation. He gave up politics after being devoted to it, distanced himself from people despite his affection for them, and isolated himself from women, embracing solitude. Though once passionate about poetry, he lost faith in words. The Arab Spring catches him off guard, yet he remains indifferent; to him, every season feels like autumn. The uprising breaks into his secluded world, and fate turns him into a thug alongside a gang of criminals, betraying his childhood and ruining his town. Once, he advocated for liberation but now finds himself a tourist guide accused of murdering a Russian tourist named "Mikhailov Vidovsky." The tourist invited him to the casino, nearly turning him into a gambling addict, and their game turned into a wager over a chessboard for the body of a beautiful woman named "Maria." In that prematurely arrived spring, a stranger visits him, inviting him to heed the teachings of "The Master," nicknamed "Paradise Peacock," who arrived from a distant cursed place. He offers Qandil glory in exchange for a poem of praise in his honor, to make him a poet, yet that's no longer Haidar's ambition. The Tunisian revolution forces Haidar, like everyone else, to face the inevitable choice between self-love and love for the homeland. "The Passion Seller"... A novel that delves into the complexities of human will in this world, aiming to revive rationalist thought, and perhaps also a tale about love and passion. (Author) Hakim Ben Ramadan, a writer from Tunisia, is a psychologist and researcher in clinical psychology in Paris. He has written for school and university theater, participated in several story and novel events, and attended playwriting workshops. In 1998, he wrote and directed a short film for the High Institute of Image and Sound in Paris "Fémis." He does not propose a project to import Western ideas but seeks to contribute to restoring Arab memory, from which he draws his characters and finds inspiration for concepts to question and rethink.

Publishing house: Dar Al Farabi Publishing and Distribution

Number of Pages: 328

Year of publication: 2012