17 Nov GTLF Countdown: No. 8

The George Town Literary Festival is less than a fortnight away, so we’d better get a move on with our countdown. The curators have really pushed the boundaries with their invitations to speakers. Said El Haji was born in Morocco and moved to The Netherlands with his family at the age of six. In 2000 his short story Young Hamid won him the El Hizjra Prize for young writers of Arabic descent. El Haji expanded this story about a teenager who begins to rebel against his strict Islamic father into his debut novel – De dagen van Sjaitan (The Days of Shaytaan). His second novel Goddelijke duivel (Divine Devil) was published in 2006 and he is currently working on his third.