The Maze, a new fiction from the Qatari Novel Library is to be launched by the Qatari author Abdulrahim al-Siddiqi at the Doha International Book Fair (DIBF).
The author of The Maze, which is scheduled to be signed and officially released on the sidelines of the upcoming DIBF, spoke about its humanistic philosophy, the challenges of writing it, and his future projects.
Regarding the reason for choosing The Maze as the title for his latest book, Al-Siddiqi said that the Maze is not just a place, but rather a mental and emotional state experienced by the hero, which is reflected in everyone around him.
Al-Siddiqi explained that the novel represents a person's journey within themselves, lost between memory and reality, love and betrayal, truth and doubt.
He continued: "The novel tells the story of Talal, who experiences a psychological struggle with his fragmented past and a mind filled with gaps."
He pointed to the interweaving of scenes of love, betrayal, murder, and Alzheimer's disease in a circular narrative that raises questions about who is the victim. Who is the killer? And is the Maze located outside or inside? Regarding the novel's broad outlines, Al-Siddiqi emphasised that his new novel is built on two axes: memory and identity. He noted that it poses an existential question: What if it's your memory that has betrayed you, not your feelings?
He emphasised that the novel's message is that nothing is as it seems; the Maze may be more within us than it is on the city streets.
Al-Siddiqi explained that there are personal motivations behind this novel, indicating that the first is artistic, represented by the desire to break with the traditional pattern of narrative fiction. The second is human, represented by writing about those we judge without understanding them. He pointed to the character of Talal, which he described as a character charged with connotations, belonging to the "gray area."
