Fahd opened the bag beside him and took out an iPod, fixing the headphones in his ears.
Mmmm … Mmmm … I got wings to fly …
He awoke in alarm to the sound of the train reducing speed. Removing the headphones from his ears he looked out of the window to see the train coming to a halt. Throwing his bag over his shoulder he stepped down on to the platform and let the little town swallow him up.
A NOTE ON THE AUTHOR
YOUSEF AL-MOHAIMEED has published several novels and short story collections in Arabic and has had stories published in Lebanon, Egypt, France, Germany, Spain, and Russia. He studied English and Photography in the UK and was recently presented with an award by Diwan al Arab magazine and the Egyptian Journalists Union in recognition of his creative contribution to Arab culture. He lives in Riyadh.
A NOTE ON THE TRANSLATOR
ROBIN MOGER is an Arabic translator currently living in Cape Town, South Africa. He is the translator of A Dog With No Tail (AUC Press, 2009) by Hamdi Abu Gollayel, Ahmed Mourad’s Vertigo (BQFP, 2011), Women of Karantina (AUC Press, 2014) by Nael Eltoukhy and Youssef Rakha’s The Crocodiles (Seven Stories Press, 2014). He was the principal translator for Writing Revolution: Voices from Tunis to Damascus (IB Tauris, 2012) which won a 2013 English PEN award for outstanding writing in translation.
This electronic edition published in 2014
First published in English in 2014 by
Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing
Qatar Foundation
PO Box 5825
Doha
Qatar
www.bqfp.com.qa
First published in Arabic in 2009 by the Arab Cultural Center
Copyright © Yousef Al-Mohaimeed, 2009
Translation © Robin Moger, 2009
The moral right of the author has been asserted
eISBN 9789927101373
Where Pigeons Don’t Fly is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher