{"product_id":"the-hospital-9780811225762","title":"The Hospital","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"When I walked through the large iron gate of the hospital, I must have still been alive...\" So begins Ahmed Bouanani's arresting, hallucinatory 1989 novel \u003cem\u003eThe Hospital\u003c\/em\u003e, appearing for the first time in English translation. Based on Bouanani's own experiences as a tuberculosis patient, the hospital begins to feel increasingly like a prison or a strange nightmare: the living resemble the dead; bureaucratic angels of death descend to direct traffic, claiming the lives of a motley cast of inmates one by one; childhood memories and fantasies of resurrection flash in and out of the narrator's consciousness as the hospital transforms before his eyes into an eerie, metaphorical space. Somewhere along the way, the hospital's iron gate disappears.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike Sadegh Hedayat's \u003cem\u003eThe Blind Owl\u003c\/em\u003e, the works of Franz Kafka--or perhaps like Mann's \u003cem\u003eThe Magic Mountain\u003c\/em\u003e thrown into a meat-grinder--\u003cem\u003eThe Hospital\u003c\/em\u003e is a nosedive into the realms of the imagination, in which a journey to nowhere in particular leads to the most shocking places.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New Directions Publishing Corporation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/26\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780811225762\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 128\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.90h x 5.10w x 0.50d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/09\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/15\/2018\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Ahmed Bouanani","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42924928303285,"sku":"9780811225762","price":12.71,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_985abd69-36ef-4441-99d5-e9579cd1337e.jpg?v=1687841561","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-hospital-9780811225762","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}