Kuwaiti wins ‘Arab Booker’ for Novel on Foreign Workers

London: Kuwaiti author, Saud Alsanousi has won the 2013 International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his portrayal of the lives of foreign workers in Gulf countries in “The Bamboo Stalk.” The 31-year-old Alsanousi became the youngest winner in the $ 50,000-prize’s six-year history for the story seen through the eyes of Issa, the son of a Kuwaiti father and a Filipino mother. “All the judges agreed on the superior quality of this novel, both artistically and also in terms of its social and humanitarian content,” the panel’s chair Egyptian writer, Galal Amin said in a statement.. On returning to his father’s homeland as an adult, Issa finds himself in a difficult position. Rather than the mythical country, his mother has described to him, he discovers he is caught between the natural, biological ties he shares with his father’s family and the prejudices of a traditional society, which views a child of Kuwaiti-Filipino heritage as socially unacceptable. The prize is supported by the Booker Prize Foundation in London and funded by the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, which marks its first year as the new sponsor in 2013.