Talal Ma'ala reclaims 'Atyaf Lu'ay Kayali' as a novel
Araminab Publications in London recently released the novel “Memory of Fire… Specters of Louay Kiyalib” by Syrian writer and artist Talal Ma’alla. The novel draws inspiration from the life of one of the most prominent pioneers of Syrian and Arab visual art, reconstructing his human and artistic world through a narrative approach that opens onto memory, reflection, and existential questions.
The novel takes the final hours of the artist Louay Kiyal’s life as its starting point for a narrative that moves between various stages of his life, evoking his childhood in Aleppo, his academic experience in Rome, his relationship with art, the city, and humanity, and culminating in the psychological and intellectual crises that accompanied his creative journey.
Through this construction, memory becomes a vast space where times, places, and voices intersect, within a narrative fabric in which facts intertwine with visions and internal reverberations.
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The significance of this work lies in its proximity to an artistic figure who left an exceptional mark on the history of Syrian and Arab visual art. Louay Kiyal’s works continue to enjoy a broad presence in artistic studies, exhibitions, and critical writings, due to their high human sensitivity and ability to capture the faces of the marginalized and the ordinary, transforming them into part of the Arab visual memory.
The novel is not preoccupied with merely retelling the known facts of Kiyal’s life, but rather focuses on exploring the artist’s inner world and the human cost that accompanies creativity when it becomes a means of seeing what others overlook. From this perspective, the novel approaches the questions that preoccupied Kiyal’s entire experience: art, isolation, human fragility, and the constant search for meaning in a world burdened by transformations and disappointments.
The novel consists of 186 pages in medium format, with a cover painting by the late artist Louay Kiyal.
