Description
The novel “Cities of Salt” by the Arab novelist Abdul Rahman Munif is a monumental epic that profoundly and insightfully depicts the transformations of the Arab world following the discovery of oil, and the radical changes that ensued in people, places, and values.
The novel begins in a small town called Wadi al-Uyun, where a simple life prevails, inhabited by Bedouins and farmers living in harmony with their desert. But when foreign companies arrive to explore for oil, everything begins to unravel. The land is transformed into oil fields, the people into laborers alienated from their land, and new cities emerge without roots, cities that sprout suddenly like bubbles, which Munif describes as “cities of salt… built not on rock, but on a mirage.”
Through his numerous and diverse characters, Munif portrays the Arab individual’s defeat in the face of money, power, and alienation, and how the dream of progress has transformed into a reality of estrangement and subjugation. The novel is not only about oil, but also about the human price paid when the ancient features of a desert that once knew itself were altered.
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