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Silence Is My Mother Tongue

Sulaiman Addonia
Contents (41)
  1. SILENCE IS MY MOTHER TONGUE
  2. SILENCE IS MY MOTHER TONGUE
  3. A Novel
  4. THE TRIAL
  5. THE ARRIVAL
  6. THE MOSQUE IN THE SAND
  7. THE EXPIRED SARDINES
  8. THE OPEN TOILET
  9. THE MIDWIFE
  10. THE TELEVISION
  11. THE BLOOD
  12. TV: LIBERATION OF A MAN
  13. THE NEW BLANKET
  14. THE SECOND-HAND CLOTHES
  15. DISGUST IS AN ACQUIRED TASTE
  16. RICE
  17. THE COMMITTEE OF ELDERS
  18. THE BUSINESSMAN
  19. MEN ARE EASY TO READ
  20. THE PROSTITUTE
  21. THE MOTHER’S NAME
  22. SHARING
  23. THE RAZOR
  24. WOMEN DYING LIKE MEN
  25. THE SHOP
  26. MEAT
  27. THE FIRST VIRGINITY TEST
  28. A WOMAN
  29. THE BROKEN LANGUAGE
  30. FREE LOVE, FENCED
  31. THE WHITE CLOTH
  32. THE DANCE
  33. THE GOAT
  34. CINEMA SILENZIOSO
  35. THE MAP OF THE COUNTRY
  36. THE WEDDING
  37. FREEDOM: THE DOUBLE PRICE
  38. LOVE SHARED
  39. THE DEPARTURE
  40. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  41. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SILENCE IS MY MOTHER TONGUE

Also by Sulaiman Addonia

The Consequences of Love

SILENCE IS MY MOTHER TONGUE

A Novel

SULAIMAN ADDONIA

Graywolf Press

Copyright © 2018 by Sulaiman Addonia

Published by arrangement with the Indigo Press, London.

The author and Graywolf Press have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify Graywolf Press at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.

This publication is made possible, in part, by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. Significant support has also been provided by Target, the McKnight Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, the Amazon Literary Partnership, and other generous contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. To these organizations and individuals we offer our heartfelt thanks.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organisations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published by Graywolf Press

250 Third Avenue North, Suite 600

Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401

All rights reserved.

www.graywolfpress.org

Published in the United States of America

ISBN 978-1-64445-033-8

Ebook ISBN 978-1-64445-129-8

2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1

First Graywolf Printing, 2020

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019956895

Cover design: Kyle G. Hunter

Cover images: iStock

To the girls – my playmates in our refugee camp: we had no toys but only our imagination to play with. Our playfulness was our painkiller in that place of scarcity. I thought of you, and the childhood friends we saw buried, whenever I came close to giving up.

This book is for you.

We know absolutely nothing about the appearance of the Celestial Stag (maybe because nobody has ever had a good look at one), but we know that these tragic animals live underground in mines and desire nothing more than to reach the light of day.

‘The Celestial Stag’, from The Book of Imaginary Beings

Jorge Luis Borges

THE TRIAL

Cinema Silenzioso

The night Saba’s trial was announced by the camp’s court clerk, I was sitting on a stool in front of my cinema screen. Cinema Silenzioso.

Dusk fell over the thatched roofs. A full moon appeared over the camp I viewed through my screen. Light like thick blue ink splotched on the walls and between the alleys, wood-burning stoves glowed red.

I saw the clerk riding his donkey in the dusty narrow streets. His silhouette skittered among the huts.

You are requested to attend the trial of Saba, the clerk declared through his megaphone. The courtroom is moving to the cinema compound.