A Family Outing

Bassam Shams Aldin  |  The AFAC Novel Writing Program  |  2015  |  Yemen
The novel is set in the tribal region named “The Directorate of Isolation.” The story is a semi-fictional simulation of tribal customs, where tension prevails over the ties of two neighboring tribes, linked together by marriage and kinship, as well as by a sort of rivalry and enmity as is usually the case between neighbors. Despite the recurrent violent confrontations between the two tribes, they always abide by certain rules and restrictions that govern their wars. The rules are not to engage in fights near the market or near the houses, and not to fire at women, children, the elderly and the unarmed, or behind someone’s back. However, one of the strongmen of one of the tribes, an aspirant young man hoping for a new era, commits the first violation of the customs ever inside the market, upsetting everyone, including the members of his own tribe