Fabio Orrico identifies searching and flight as the movement shared by the six stories. The publisher’s presentation focuses on their unsettling world and the choice to address European readers in their own language. Alongside these interpretations, the clipping from La Gazzetta records the book’s presentation and the sequence of earlier publications. The report on the Giovanni Gronchi competition adds another piece to its reception history. These different kinds of document help distinguish literary interpretation from cultural reporting.
These texts come from the author’s archive and include the available attributions and references. Short press extracts appear at their preserved length. Editorial readings are distinguished from signed contributions. English and Arabic versions translate the Italian texts collected here; external documents and scans retain their original language.
Archival text
Six stories confirm Ghonim's talent
La Gazzetta · 11 January 1999
The press presentation of La foglia di fico e altri racconti and the author's literary journey.
Translation of the Italian text held in the archive; not an original English contribution by the named author.
Mohamed Ghonim's latest book, La foglia di fico e altri racconti, published by Fara, was presented to the press in recent days. Born in Egypt in 1958, a member of Les Cultures, Mohamed Ghonim has lived in Vercurago for several years. An author of poetry and plays in Egypt, with an interest in philosophy and psychology, he started a catering business in Italy.
Despite his professional commitments, he did not set aside his wish to express himself, engaging with the Italian language and searching its vast vocabulary for the most suitable words. Thus, in 1994, the Egyptian poet published the novel Il segreto di Barhume with Les Cultures. It was followed in 1995 by Quando cade la maschera and in 1997 by the poetry collection Il canto dell'amore, characterised by a kind of dialogue with the biblical Song of Songs. Ghonim was also selected among the authors published in the Eks&Tra prize anthologies.
Source recorded in the archive: Original clipping in the author’s press archive
Original clipping preserved in the author’s press archiveIn this dossier
Archival text
Introducing La foglia di fico e altri racconti
Fara Editore · Publisher’s presentation
An unsettling small world in which narrative opens onto the richness of African culture.
Translation of the Italian text held in the archive; not an original English contribution by the named author.
The characters of Ghonim inhabit a small nightmare world: are they defeated people? Probably so, yet they seem to have no other chance of existing except within this haunting and existentially crucial dimension.
“His aim is to show Europeans the richness and timelessness of African culture. This is why he chose to write in the language his interlocutors can best understand: their own.”
Eyoum Nganguè, L'autre Afrique, 4–10 February 1998
The 12th Giovanni Gronchi International Literary Competition
Giovanni Gronchi Literary Competition · Pontedera
Recognition awarded to Mohamed Ghonim's short-story collection.
Translation of the Italian text held in the archive; not an original English contribution by the named author.
Mohamed Ghonim has succeeded once again. A new award joins his record of achievements. With his latest publication, the short-story collection La foglia di fico e altri racconti, he took fifth place in the 12th Giovanni Gronchi International Literary Competition, held in Pontedera.
La foglia di fico contains six stories: La foglia di fico, Il mantice, Quella del fazzoletto bianco, La mano invisibile, Il canto della libertà and L'opulenza. In each, the characters are linked by a single connecting thread: the search.
Source recorded in the archive: Historical Ghonim.com archive
Searching and movement as the connecting thread of the collection's six stories.
Translation of the Italian text held in the archive; not an original English contribution by the named author.
Search and flight: Ghonim's journeys.
A shared feature links these six stories, brings them together and in some way makes them intelligible: the search. Ghonim always tells the story of a search, even when he seems to be doing something entirely different. His characters are in perpetual motion, pursuing their goal or, if not, fleeing. Always moving.
Ghonim works with a few particular figures: “saving” women, fathers and children. Ancient literary motifs, as we said, yet still indispensable, still indecipherable.
Fabio Orrico
Source recorded in the archive: Historical Ghonim.com archive
