The book by Dr. Asma Maqbel Awad Al-Ahmadi, a Saudi critic and academic at King Abdulaziz University, topped the short list 2020-2021 for the Young Author catery of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. The author carried the title "Problems of the Narrating Self in the Saudi Women's Novel, from 1999 to 2021", and the book constitutes an important tributary of the literary critical study in the field of the Saudi novel, during the period between: (1999-2012), and an attempt to stand on the novelistic achievement through which one can enter into the problems of women and their issues that narrowed their existence and uniqueness; So the novel was to lift the veil on the unspoken, especially what was written in the tongue of a woman who sees in her dignity and freedom the pouring out of those secrets and pushing them to society to judge itself, and issue its sentence against the male tide, despite what society possesses of acceptance for the civilizational development that the country is witnessing, especially after the oil boom, in addition to ing deep into thought, humanity, and the other.

Dr. Asma Al-Ahmadi gave Ahwal Al-Ma'rifa magazine a special statement saying that the book's leading through bright stages of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award is a pleasant thing.. it inspires pride and honor; As the award on its various paths and sessions emphasizes the creative, intellectual, and human side achieving existence, being, and uniqueness, and the woman topping the short list - in the branches of "Young Author", "Children's and Youth Literature", and "Literature" - is confirming and surpassing the exclusion that women are subjected to in Arab societies, for the standard of progress is merit regardless of gender, group, and region; As the quality of the product and the intellectual, critical, and creative issues it raises - a signal and stimulation of the awareness of societies - is the ultimate al sought by the award, and there is no strangeness in that as it carries the name of a great leadership and human symbol who was a pioneer in achieving equality and searching for what establishes the building of the country, and represents a human model; As of his words – may d rest his soul -: "Teaching and educating people in itself is a great wealth we are proud of, for science is wealth and we are building the future on a scientific basis", and he adds - may d have mercy on him -: "The woman is the first person responsible for the family, and teaching her the basics of life and educating her is one of the most important things on which women's work in the state is based."

  From here, the qualification of my critical book for the short list of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award - "Problems of the Narrating Self in the Saudi Women's Novel, from 1999 to 2012", represents a feeling of highness and pride; as obtaining an award - or progressing through its stages - that carries the name of a historical, global, and human symbol, is a great demand that researchers, creators, and thinkers aspire to, to hold the honor of leadership and serious, sober work, and to create hope in the cultural, creative, and intellectual movement; whose title is merit, wise leaderships, intellectual renaissance, constructive societies, and rising.. stable nations...!!.

About the Book  

   The specificity of the book also appears in its search for the marginalized.. shattered self and raising its issues, away from classification and prejudice against one gender versus another; As it represents the engagement of the study around human, peace, and rights through the presentation of the narrating selves - in the tongue of the woman - of their problems; for the sake of human existence. New names have emerged entering the world of fiction and narration for the first time, some of whom sought to express social and subjective problems and concerns, and some appeared to want to catch up with the novelistic caravan, especially after the novel became a very popular phenomenon. Starting from 2003, novels began to flow to form an unprecedented phenomenon in Saudi Arabia and even in the Arab world (20 to 25 novels per year). Perhaps "Problems of the Narrating Self in the Saudi Women's Novel, from 1999 to 2012", published recently by the Arab Scientific Publishers and the Jazan Literary Club, in 800 pages is evidence of the rise of the women's novel and its state of prosperity and of the multiple difficulties it faces, on the literary, critical, artistic, and social levels.

    The issue that the book adopts is not limited to the Saudi women's novel - but it carries the features of the Saudi woman and her specificity, culture, and identity -, although it represents a prominent phenomenon that cannot be ignored, but it is also one of the issues that were represented in Arab novels, and formed a written revolution and a haunting obsession that pushed women novelists to concentrate their effort in order to shed light on the subjective pain - shared by many women in Arab societies.