Fantastic review of Lady Hayatt’s Husbands and other Erotic Tales…

Lady Hayatt's Husbands by Ahmed Fagih‘Readers familiar with Libyan writer Ahmed Fagih’s works in English translation may be surprised by his latest book: a collection of erotica entitled Lady Hayatt’s Husbands and other erotic tales. The slender 127-page volume contains seven stories by Fagih and a story from The Thousand and One Nights.The collection is published by London-based Quartet Books. Fagih has enjoyed a long association with Quartet. It published his Gardens of the Night: A Trilogy in 1995 and the novel Homeless Rats in 2011.

In terms of length, there could hardly be a greater contrast between the new book and Fagih’s previous most recent work in English translation, the mammoth 656-page trilogy Maps of the Soul produced by London-based Darf Publishers in 2012. The trilogy comprises the first three books of Fagih’s monumental Maps of the Soul sequence of 12 historical novels set in Libya and Abyssinia.
In terms of design, Quartet has done Fagih proud. The inviting red cover of Lady Hayatt’s Husbands carries an illustration by the famous English illustrator and author Aubrey Beardsley (1872-98). Beardsley was a member of the decadent Aesthetic Movement. His distinctive erotic illustrations and decorative elements, influenced by Japanese woodcuts, appear throughout the book.’
Susannah Tarbrush gives a fantastic review of Lady Hayatt’s Husbands and Other Erotic Tales by Ahmed Fagih on her blog The Tanjara. You can read the full feature here and get your copy of the book here today.