Very few Saudi writers are translated in Europe. Here is a UFO published by Le Seuil: The Beaver, Mohammed Hasan Alwan, paints a portrait of Saudi Arabi tainted with humour. The society is weighed down by traditions, religion, but is also changing with a very young population that aspires to change.
See more here.
Très peu d’écrivains saoudiens sont traduits en Europe. Voici donc un ovni publié par les éditions du Seuil : Le Castor, de Mohammed Hasan Alwan, dresse un portrait teinté d’humour de l’Arabie Saoudite. Une société plombée par les traditions, le poids de …

Alwan, and his novel “Beavers” were the guests of Katheline Evin’s show on France Inter, on May 26th, 2015. Listen here.
Below a review that was published on their website. An excerpt in Englihs:
“Cruel and nostalgic, funny and incredibly fierce, this book obviously speaks of Saudi Arabia, its archaisms and violence, the patriarcal system and sexual repression that prevail. But above all, with devastating humour, this novel tells the story of those families where the lack of love, the hypocrisy, greed and rejection of others damage its children and raise walls between …

This review by Catherine Simon, was published by Le Monde des Livres, on January 22, 2015. Below are a few excerpts in English.
Both melancholic and hilarious, this story (…) sheds a critical, often fierce, light on the Saudi society and its offspring (…)

An interview conducted by Marie-Christine Blais, for La Presse, published in April 10th.
Your narrator, Ghaleb, draws continually striking parallels between beavers he discovered in Oregon and his family who lives in Riyadh. How did you get this idea?
I grew up in Saudi Arabia, where beavers do not exist. My knowledge on the subject was therefore superficial, and I was not interested in it, anyway! It was when I moved to Portland [Oregon], in 2006, to finish my master that I really got to know this animal.

This article by Catherine Simon, was published in French, by Le Monde des Livres
September 2012
What follows is an approximate translation into English.
 
A historical novel, then? A parody rather. The stories told here are full of errors, as childhood memories and village gossip usually are. This is one of the strokes of genius of this kaleidoscopic book, an almost ethnological dive of a writer among her people: everything is truthful, nothing is quite true. It was nice to come across the shadows of Mussolini and Petain, President Chamoun or that of General …

To listen to the program, click on this link.