Book Presentation: "Five Nights in Warsaw"
The book was born from the idea of a reportage made in November 2021. The cover features the statue of the Warsaw Mermaid, a famous bronze monument located in the Old Town square and considered one of the symbols of the city. La Presse — "Arrival in Warsaw is always accompanied by musical tones." This is how Hatem Bourial set the scene and pace of his latest book "Five Nights in Warsaw" published by Le Naf editions. From Chopin to Gilbert Bécaud, he introduced the story of a five-night stay in Warsaw, the Polish capital rich in historical and cultural discoveries.
Presentation and Book Signing
A presentation and book signing session for this book was held on September 14 at the Palais Ahmed Bey in La Marsa. This historic beylical residence, classified as a historic monument, was saved from demolition and restored stone by stone by its owner Mahmoud Redissi. After many years of work, it finally opened its doors to host the first literary event in a space dedicated to culture.
Author's Background
Hatem Bourial, a journalist, radio host, and author of over a dozen books, mostly on Tunisian heritage and his travels in Central Europe, inaugurated the meeting around "Five Nights in Warsaw". The event was attended by numerous diplomatic representatives from Austria, Germany, and Wallonia-Brussels, and was opened by the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Tunisia.
Book Overview
The book is divided into five chapters, each corresponding to a sleepless night spent between daydreams and strolls, where the author reconstructs the memories of his travels in Poland over thirty years. Famous and lesser-known places, as well as encounters, pass before his eyes in "a escape to Warsaw and a escape into daydreaming", as he indicated in the presentation. Hatem Bourial explained the use of this mental escape as an inner journey to report thoughts from the past and link them to a present experience.
Literary Style
Daydreaming is, according to him, a literary process borrowed from Nerval, notably in his collection "The Girls of Fire" or Samuel Beckett. Through this narrative method, Bourial continuously refers to his hometown, Tunis, and goes as far as the oases of the South to retrieve related impressions.
Exploring Warsaw
As the author wanders through the pages, streets, neighborhoods, churches, and monuments emerge, evoking "a land of high memory". The writer returns to places, but also to historical nods, culinary traditions, human encounters, and cultural echoes that make up the portrait of an "inexhaustible Warsaw". The text is therefore read as an invitation to explore the capital, to walk it with the "fascinated steps" and amazed eyes of the narrator, who also highlighted "the legendary Polish conviviality".
Historical Connections
The author sought historical connections between the two peoples. "The traces are numerous, but scattered," he writes in the fourth chapter. Between poems inspired by Carthage and a statue of Hannibal encountered during a visit, a subtle proximity emerges, accessible to those who know how to discern it. These influences are indeed intertwined. "How to recite, more precisely how to restore what a priori foreign culture has taught you?" Bourial writes before relating the marks of the city of Chopin in the artistic repertoire familiar to us.
Bilateral Relations
In this bilateral relationship between the two civilizations, Hatem Bourial has already been interested in promoting the culture of Central and Eastern Europe and their rapprochement with Tunisia. This effort earned him the honor medal awarded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.
Upcoming Book
This book dedicated to Warsaw is, according to him, a continuation of "The Prague Digressions" published last year, which is more than just a travel notebook. "There is always something that connects me to Central Europe," he explains to the audience. He recounted that this enthusiasm dates back to his childhood. "I had Polish and Czech classmates. We found them exotic at the time." This experience of otherness made him become the recognized great traveler and strongly nourished his writings. "There are still things to see," Bourial launched to the audience at the end of the presentation. The story ends in a taxi to the airport, closed with a promise that the narrator made to himself "Anyway, I will return."
The Importance of Travel Literature
During the presentation of "Five Nights in Warsaw", the author addressed the absence of travel stories in Tunisian literature and even on a larger scale. In fact, since Ibn Batouta, there has not been a generation of travelers who relate their itineraries. Bourial explained the value that must be given to this literature, as well as the importance of weaving our historical relationship with each visited country into the texts.
Conclusion
According to him, this literature would play an essential role in understanding countries whose language remains little accessible to us, which would contribute to the deficit of university research on common historical traces. Finally, Hatem Bourial announced that his next book "Viennese Fragments" will be ready soon. Another invitation to explore a magnificent city, with a new concentrate of memories and exciting cultural discoveries.
