Exile, a place of the present and of memory A geographical approach to Al-Qundus (The Beaver) by Alwan

In Al-Qundus (The Beaver) by the Saudi Mohamed Hassan Alwan, places, travels, and the memories linked to them are recurring narrative elements. From the banks of the Willamette River to the neighborhoods of Riyadh via the great European capitals, geography looms large, and reveals the isolation of the narrator, who is no more attached to American society than he is to his place of origin, which he seeks to escape, but which continues to haunt him, because exile in Portland sends him straight back to his past and to Riyadh.