Unlike his previous works, the Egyptian novelist Ahmed Mourad’s new book “Murder for Amateurs” is not fiction. Instead, it’s a narration of his personal relationship with writing, cinema, and boredom.
The book, recently published by Dar Al Shorouk, comes after seven novels, from “Vertigo” (2007) to “The Bir Al-Watawit Hotel” (2020). His third novel, “The Blue Elephant” (2012), became a best-seller and was short-listed for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2014. It was also turned into a film, along with a sequel. Mourad wrote the scripts for both.
Mourad, who was born in 1978, says overcoming boredom has been a preoccupation of his since his childhood. “I can hardly settle on a certain mood, a specific sport, or a favorite type of reading,” he said. “I hardly write on one subject twice. I felt fed up with political crime writing after my second novel of the kind, ‘Diamond Dust’, despite its success. So, I decided to write a fantasy and horror novel. Thus came ‘The Blue Elephant’.”