Anosmia. Nostalgia for a Forbidden Sense. by Ezza Agha Malak, Cynthia Hahn, Translator and Gilles Sicard and Rosana Sanchez

Dr. Ezza Agha Malak, born in Lebanon in 1942, is a retired professor of the UniversitÃ© Libanaise and the UniversitÃ© Saint-Joseph (Lebanon), having taught in the areas of French Linguistics and Stylistics, as well as French language and literature, both at the university and high school levels. She directed doctoral research at the University of Lebanon, and is an honorary recipient of the distinguished title of Chevalier de l Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, accorded by the French government. She received a Doctorat d Etat Ã¨s Lettres et Sciences Humaines from Lyon II, France, in 1983, as well as the Doctorat de 3Ã¨me Cycle in French Linguistics and Semiology from Lyon II, France, in 1977, and the DEA in Applied Linguistics from the same university in 1975. She obtained the MaÃ®trise de Lettres Modernes, from the Ecole supÃ©rieure des Lettres in Beirut in 1974, and a Licence de Langue et LittÃ©rature FranÃ§aises, from the University of Lebanon in Beirut in 1973. Dr. Ezza Agha Malak is the Chief Editor of the monthly francophone review, Trait d Union, co-founded the monthly francophone journal, Phares, and has presented at numerous academic conferences worldwide, as well as authored a number of articles on French linguistics and literature, for academic journals such as La PensÃ©e arabe contemporaine, Trait-d Union, la Revue du Liban. She is a regular contributor at the Salon du Livre in Beirut, in Tripoli, in Provence and in Paris, and has recited original poetry in Canada, the U.S., France and Lebanon. In addition to being a composer and performer of children s songs, she has been spotlighted on Canadian, French and Lebanese radio and television. In 2001, she received the MÃ©daille du MÃ©rite from the ComitÃ© de l Ã‰ducation Parlementaire libanais, and regularly consults for national teaching associations and writing contests. A special colloquium to honor her artistic and academic contributions was organized in Lebanon in 2005, and another will be held in Paris in November 2008. Two collective studies of Dr. Ezza Agha Malak's work have been published to date: Regards sur l uvre narrative et poÃ©tique de Ezza Agha Malak, Ã‰ditions des Ã‰crivains, Paris 1999; and Regards croisÃ©s francophones sur l' uvre narrative et poÃ©tique de Ezza Agha Malak, l Harmattan, Paris 2005. Dr. Ezza Agha Malak has published more than 7 volumes of poetry in Lebanon and Paris, since 1985, and at least 12 novels or collections of short stories since 1957. Her most recent novel is entitled, Bagdad : Des morts qui sonnent plus fort que d autres (Ã‰ditions des Ã‰crivains, Paris 2006). She currently resides in both Dijon, France and Tripoli, Lebanon. Dr. Cynthia T. Hahn is Professor of French and Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Lake Forest College, Illinois (USA). She received her PhD in French literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1990. Dr. Cynthia T. Hahn has published three other novel translations to date, including two by Lebanese author Evelyne Accad (Wounding Words: A Woman s Journal in Tunisia, Heinemann, Oxford, 1996; Poppy From the Massacre, L Harmattan, 2006), and another by Algerian author Noureddine Aba (The Lost Song of a Rediscovered Country, L Harmattan, 1999), in addition to a translation of Tunisian poetry, and a short story of Djbouti (in From Africa, University of Nebraska Press, 2004). Other publications include scholarly articles on North African women s studies, French language literature in Canada, translation studies, and her original poetry in English and French.

Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
What starts off as a woman's search for her sudden missing ability to "smell," slowly unfolds as a beautiful and penetrating search for self in present and past, via various associations with a range of scents and experiences (and love). The Middle Eastern backdrop (Lebanese) is an added cultural bonus for those of us without that first hand experience. This cultural context adds to her plight of character.