Ahmed Fagih

Ahmed Ibrahim al-Fagih (Arabic: أحمد إبراهيم الفقيه ’áħmad 'Ibrāhīm al-faqīh) (December 28, 1942 – April 30, 2019) was a Libyan novelist, playwright, essayist, journalist and diplomat. He began writing short stories at an early age publishing them in Libyan newspapers and magazines. He gained recognition in 1965 when his first collection of short stories There Is No Water in the Sea (Arabic: البحر لا ماء فيه) won him the highest award sponsored by the Royal Commission of Fine Arts in Libya. Fagih wrote many more books in different genres, including short stories, novels, plays, essays, among them Gazelles (play), Evening Visitor (play), Gardens of the Night Trilogy (novels), The Valley of Ashes (novel), and his 12-volume epic novel Maps of the Soul, which had its first three volumes translated into English and published by DARF Publishers in UK in 2014.

Fagih held several diplomatic posts representing Libya, in London, Athens, Bucharest and Cairo. He lived and worked between Cairo and Tripoli. He published his three part novel Garden of The Night in 1991, which won the best creative work of Beirut Book Fair. In 2000 he edited an English anthology of 13 short stories by Libyan writers.

Works

Short stories There Is No Water in the Sea (1965) البحر لا ماء فيه Fasten Your Seatbelts اربطوا أحزمة المقاعد The Stars Vanished So Where Are You? أختفت النجوم فأين أنت؟ A Woman of Light إمرأة من ضوء Five Beetles Trying the Tree خمس خنافس تحاكم الشجرة Mirrors of Venice مرايا فينسيا 30 Short Stories ثلاثون قصة قصيرة

Novels Homeless Rats فئران بلا جحور Valley of Ashes حقول الرماد Shall Present You With Another City سأهبك مدينة أخرى These Are The Borders of My Kingdom هذه تخوم مملكتي A Tunnel Lit by A Woman نفق تضيئه أمرأة واحدة The Trilogy (Garden of The Night) الثلاثية الروائية Maps of The Soul, an epic work of fiction in 12 volumes خرائط الروح

Plays Gazelles الغزالات

Theatre Productions

Gazelles, adapted and directed by Adrian Mitchell, Shaw Theatre, London (UK), 1982 Le Gazzelle, directed by Marco Di Stefano, Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Milan, (Italy), 2010