Mā'idat al-qaṭṭ: Arabic 2020

In the early fifties, an eleven-year-old boy rides a steamship from Sri Lanka to Britain, en route to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, and the boy witnesses the port of Aden, Abha, Jeddah, and Port Said. He sits at mealtimes at the "cat table". It is the farthest table from the captain’s table, and a group of "adults" with strange personalities sits on it, as well as two boys: Cassis and Ram al-Din. The boys on the deck of the ship risk free like a liquid squeak, knowing closely the rich and thieves, the scholars and the lonely, and they track down the prisoner who is not allowed to leave until midnight, exposing themselves to a danger they do not realize its extent. A journey of storms and suns will remain in their imaginations throughout their lives.