Wolves of the Crescent Moon

[JesusA (imported)]

Wolves of the Crescent Moon is a fine short novel by Yousef Al-Mohaimeed, a young Saudi author. It is his first work to be translated into English and the Arabic original was published in Syria in 2003. While Al-Mohaimeed is Saudi and grew up in the capital city of Riyadh and the novel is set in the the district of his youth, the book has been banned in Saudi Arabia.

The novel is fast-paced and follows one night (plus many flashbacks) of the intertwined lives of three outsiders in Saudi society, a Bedouin, an orphan, and a eunuch. The setting is the present and the eunuch, a former slave captured in the Sudan sometime in the 1940s and now an employee of a government ministry, is treated as if eunuchs were simply part of the everyday underclass of contemporary Saudi society. Since the novel is based on the environs of Al-Mohaimeed’s own neighborhood and on his acquaintances, it’s probably very realistic.

One flashback has the eunuch, Tawfiq, describing his capture by slave traders. A later chapter has him recounting his transport to Saudi Arabia and his castration.

The novel has received very positive reviews and is published in paperback by Penguin Books.