ADIBF 2010 is coming to a close in a few hours, but there’s still been a lot to see today: I just got back from a lively discussion with author Alia Yunis, whose first novel, The Night Counter, was published by Random House last summer. Born in the US to Palestinian and Lebanese parents, Yunis spent her childhood in Minnesota, Beirut and Athens, spending some time in Doha before moving to LA to work as a screenwriter for a number of years. A year-and-a-half ago, just as her novel was being published, she moved to Abu Dhabi, where she now teaches film and television at Zayed University. Not surprisingly, she said she never feels culture shock. The book has been very successful, apparently, and so far has been published (or soon will be published) in German, Norwegian, and French.

The Night Counter puts an interesting twist on the story of Shehrezade from 1001 Nights: in the novel, Shehrezade isn’t telling stories, but is listening to the tales of an old Lebanese-American woman named Fatima, who has ten days left to live. The narrative revolves around Fatima and her very dysfunctional extended Arab-American family over the course of ten days, with Shehrezade listening in the whole time. Coming from a background in screenwriting, she found her experience in Hollywood very helpful in writing the book: “Screenplays are formulaic by nature, and as a screenwriter, you have to work within that formula,” she says. “That training helps you to structure stories, and keeps you disciplined when writing fiction.”

What I found most interesting was the reception she said her novel has had: surprisingly, despite its subject, Yunis said she’s had very few responses from her fellow Arab-Americans, although plenty of other readers have written to her to tell her they recognize their own families in the story of Fatima and her offspring. In any case, like many authors, she is reluctant to have her work pigeonholed simply as “ethnic fiction.” She also assumed her book would appeal most to a female audience, but has been surprised to discover how many of her readers are male, at least based on the emails she’s received from readers.

One of the reasons the discussion was so enjoyable was that so many people in the audience had read the book and were genuinely interested to hear her talk about her work and what role her screenwriting background played in her writing. At the moment, she is writing a screenplay and finishing a YA novel, although she also has plans for another adult novel (“something totally different”). I’m looking forward to reading The Night Counter myself, once the fair is over and I’m back home.

–Chip Rossetti