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The Voice of an Asian Expat in a Qatari Short Story by Nurah Al-Saad: The Newspaper Seller

Qatari literature is still budding, as its diffusion can be credited to the birth of the press in the 1960s, and it is yet to have garnered the attention of Western scholars, especially if compared to the literature from Arabian Persian Gulf countries, such as Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia. This study aims at contributing to enrich the discourse on Qatari literature, by analysing the structure and contents of the short story The Newspaper Seller, published in 1989 by Nurah al-Saad (Nūrah ˀāl Saˁad). This piece offers the reader a precious insight about the reality of expats’ lives in the 1980s. The story depicts the harsh daily routine of an Asian immigrant, who attempts to survive by selling newspapers under the scorching sun in the streets of Doha. The main character, named Malik (Mālik), has just moved away from his family and is now dreaming of a better future, while finding himself in an entirely different reality: he is forced to work two jobs, in order to be able to live with some dignity and to help his family of origin. This short story was highly acclaimed by literary critics. Due to its original topic and narrative techniques, through the use of interior monologue, associations, stream of consciousness and symbols, it is considered a pioneering work for that time.