Khedairi, Betool 1965- (Batul Khudayri)

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Khedairi, Betool 1965- (Batul Khudayri)

PERSONAL:

Born November 27, 1965, in Baghdad, Iraq. Education: University of Mustansirya, Baghdad, B.A., 1988.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Amman, Jordan. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer. Consultant for American Family television series regarding episodes on the war in Iraq, 2003.

WRITINGS:

Kam Badat Al Sama Qareeba (novel), Arab Institute for Research and Publication (Beirut, Lebanon), 1999, 3rd edition, 2003, translation by Muhayman Jamil published as A Sky So Close, Pantheon Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Ghayeb (novel), Arab Institute for Research and Publication (Beirut, Lebanon), 2004, translation by Muhayman Jamil published as Absent, Random House (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including the Guardian, Al Quds Al Arabi, Le Jourdain, and Libération. Novels also translated into Italian, French, and Dutch.

SIDELIGHTS:

Born in Baghdad to an Iraqi father and a Scottish mother, writer Betool Khedairi has written novels in Arabic that have been translated into English, French, Italian, and other languages. In her first novel, Kam Badat Al Sama Qareeba, published in English as A Sky So Close, the author writes a coming-of-age tale featuring an unnamed narrator, a young girl who, similar to the author, is the daughter of an Iraqi father and an English mother. Because of her mixed heritage and the constant culture-based disagreements between her parents, the young girl feels isolated both in the Iraqi countryside where she lives and in the Westernized school of music and ballet that she eventually attends in Baghdad at her mothers behest.

The novel follows the collapse of the girl's parents' marriage, with her father becoming sick and dying and the girl's mother also becoming ill with breast cancer. In between, the girl is mentored by "Madame" at the music and ballet school, with Madame becoming perhaps the most influential adult in her life, even going so far as to introduce the girl to her first lover. The girl and her mother eventually move to England when the first Gulf War breaks out in Iraq. Once there, the girl continues with her sense of isolation and dissatisfaction before coming to terms with her mixed heritage and the influence of two very different cultures on her life. "In the novel, as in real life, Khedairi's concern lies with the human dimension, with people's lives, their relationships with each other, with their own cultures as well as with foreign cultures," wrote Brigitte Voykowitsch on the Die Gazette Web site.

In an interview on the Random House Web site, the author discussed what the protagonist learns from her mother, father, and other characters and delved into an explanation of the pivotal character of Madame, noting: "Madame represents cultural opportunities that help enrich Iraq. She is surrounded by artists, dancers, sculptors, architects, actors, etc. But when circumstances set in, the dream falls apart. The narrator witnesses the death of dreams with Madame's failure. Then when she is in the UK, Madame's letters cover the local news, thus becoming the voice of her homeland. Madame represents the destruction of the cultural life with the first war and then the suffering of the everyday life throughout the second war."

A Sky So Close received numerous favorable reviews from English critics. Michael Maiello, writing in the New York Times Book Review, noted that the author's "writing is both impressionistic and accomplished; she is economical but never terse." A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that "lovers of literary fiction will be pulled in by the poetic descriptions," adding later in the same review that "this quietly compelling story rings true."

Khedari's second novel, Ghayeb, translated into English as Absent, features another young Iraqi girl. This time the story focuses on Dalai, growing up in Iraq and living under the stress of the worldwide sanctions placed on the country following the first Gulf War. An orphan, Dalai lives with her aunt and uncle in a crowded apartment as she deals with the political uncertainties of Iraq, her facial paralysis, and her difficult life working several jobs as she tries to further her education. Despite her difficulties, however, Dalai is beginning to make her way thanks to the help of friends and neighbors until everything is threatened by a Baath government informant.

In a review of Absent in Publishers Weekly, a contributor noted the author's ability to "paint a lucid and insightful picture of Iraq in the late 1990s." A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote that "an intimate picture of life in a Baghdad apartment building during the perilous 1990s … is gradually assembled in this colorful novel."