These Bodies of Water, Sabrina Mahfouz
These Bodies of Water, Sabrina Mahfouz
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These Bodies of Water
A Personal History of the British Empire in the Middle East

Author: Sabrina Mahfouz

Narrator: Sabrina Mahfouz

Unabridged: 4 hr 58 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tinder Press

Published: 05/12/2022


Synopsis

Are you not made of Suez silt?
How do we know you won't
shore our boats
by making yourself bigger
than we made you?

Sabrina Mahfouz once sat in a Whitehall interview room and was interrogated about everything from her political leanings to her private life. It was ostensibly a job interview, but implicit in their demands was the unspoken question: as a woman of Middle Eastern heritage, could she really be trusted?

Years later, Sabrina found herself confronting the meaning behind this interrogation, and how it was specifically informed by the British Empire's historical dominance in the Middle East. THESE BODIES OF WATER investigates this history through the Middle Eastern coastlines and waterways that were so vital to the Empire's hold. Interwoven with her own personal experiences, Sabrina combines history, politics, myth and poetry in a devastating examination of this unacknowledged part of Britain's colonial past.

Part history, part polemic and part intimate memoir, THESE BODIES OF WATER is a tapestry of writing that tells the story of Britain's relationship with the Middle East in the most revealing terms.

(P) 2022 Headline Publishing Group Ltd

About Sabrina Mahfouz

Sabrina Mahfouz is a writer and performer, raised in London and Cairo and working across multiple art forms. Her poetry collection, How You Might Know Me, was a 2017 Guardian Best Summer Read and she is an essay contributor to the multi-award-winning The Good Immigrant. Her previous theatre work includes A History of Water in the Middle East, Chef and Dry Ice. Sabrina has edited the anthologies Smashing It, Poems From a Green and Blue Planet and The Things I Would Tell You. She regularly presents documentaries and literary programmes on BBC Radio 4.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jungian.Reader on May 09, 2022

A meditation on the overpowering and brutal influence of British Imperialism and Colonialism in the Middle East and current day politics that still leads to deaths forged by capitalism. I have got to say that I have never thought about how much influence the British has in promoting wars and capitali......more

Goodreads review by Min on August 03, 2022

This might honestly end up being my favourite book of the year. I don't know what more I can say apart from everyone needs to read this book. It was eye-opening and provocative. I felt deeply connected to the intertwining history and semi-fictional narrative. It felt like a breeze to read but somehow......more

Goodreads review by Shreyas on July 29, 2023

This book reads like the rough draft of Ayad Akhtar’s Homeland Elegies. It is powerful, moving and adeptly weaves in striking imagery with bloody historical facts. Even so, something feels missing. It presents the weight of 200 years of world shaping history delivered with all the research quality a......more

Goodreads review by Annkathrin on January 15, 2023

Mahfouz uses snippets from her Developed Vetting interview at the MOD as starting points to take the reader on a pinball journey across and between different Arab nations and the UK, exploring the history and water-bound motives of the British Empire in the region, and how its colonial aftermath aff......more


Quotes

Sabrina Mahfouz is a tidal wave of truth swallowing the banks of empire with a torrent of information which will not be damned. These Bodies of Water is so vast, yet achingly intimate. It is a brilliant piece of work which had me hooked from start to finish. Lemn Sissay

These Bodies of Water is a bold, brave look at the ways imperialism affects us all, from the universally political to the insightfully intimate

Sabrina Mahfouz's poetic talents come to the forefront in this lyrical meditation on the influence of the British Empire in the Middle East. Part memoir, part history, These Bodies of Water defies categorisation in favour of a lucid, tumbling narrative that sweeps you along for the ride. Like all truly brilliant books, it's impossible to put down while you're reading, and impossible to forget about when you've finished Glamour

Sabrina is a writer of staggering conviction, ingenuity and integrity. Her skills are mighty, her language is beautiful and precise. She's a real one

Brilliant and profound...this book is about coastlines, cities, climate collapse and capitalism. There's so much going on in it. It's marvellous

A brilliant and fascinating history of the Middle East, forcing us to rethink everything we thought we knew. A completely necessary book for us all as we sit in a post-Brexit world, once more considering boundaries and border lines. Sabrina writes beautifully, using prose, rhythm and poetry, to combine history and memoir in one of the most compelling journeys through the Middle East

I'm a huge fan of Sabrina Mahfouz and her unsurpassed talent to draw a reader in from the first line. These Bodies Of Water is a great example of her integrity, her essential honesty, this work is breathtaking and ferocious, uncompromising and powerful

I loved THESE BODIES OF WATER. It's fierce, intelligent, and wise, and everyone should read it

Just wonderful . . . Such a brilliant and unique way to tackle the impacts of colonialism on a region. I absolutely loved it

This is a fearless and brilliant book. Each and every sentence is fire! Nikita Gill