10 years after it was first released in Arabic, and after the English and Italian translations, Janna Ala Al Ard is now out in French as Paradis Synthetique. It is the first book to be published by Hikaya Editions, and the second translation of a book into French by Davide Knecht. It is such an honor to have it published as Davide and Romain’s (his partner) first choice to launch their publishing house. I wish them all the best.

The Story Started in 2010

The story of Paradis Synthetique goes back to April 2010 when I was in Chicago. My friend asked me to get him a copy of GQ magazine. I bought the magazine and was flipping through the pages when my eyes caught an article with a headline that says something along the lines of “human beings will soon be living up to 1000 years.” I was only 33 years old back then, but I knew that time passes quickly. I feared death. With the short human lifespan we have, it scared me even more, and I knew that it is inevitable. The article wasn’t a false promise or an imaginary dream of a storyteller; it was written by a real scientist who had a vision and a plan to defeat aging. It gave me hope. That scientist is Aubrey De Grey. He made me dream of a world where such a promise is a reality. I opened my Facebook at the time and wrote an article (a Facebook note) titled “How an anti-aging pill changed us?“, outlining what would become the blueprint of Heaven on Earth.

At the time I was still writing my first book Arous Amman (The Bride of Amman). I hadn’t even published it. Arous Amman got published two years later and was an instant hit. I was overwhelmed by its success and the reactions of people. They LOVED it. It was about gender and sexuality, so current and so real, showing how things were in Amman at the time. As a result, many readers expected me to continue in the same line. Many wanted a sequel to the bride, but I wanted to do something else.

Writing Sci-fi

My first attempt at writing Janna was a total failure

The success of the first book helped me secure a scholarship to do my MA in the UK. At the time, I wanted to learn to write better, so I decided to do my MA in Creative Writing and Critical Thinking. During my studies, I started working on my second novel, Janna Ala Al Ard. A sci-fi story that imagines a near future when science defeats aging and eternal youth becomes attainable. It was more challenging to imagine the future than to state out current affairs. My first attempt at writing Janna was a total failure. I was almost halfway through when I sent the draft to a friend to read. He replied in a few days, angered, telling me how terrible it was. I had to throw it away and start from scratch. My MA studies helped me get a better vision of what I wanted to do. I took a module entitled “Utopia and Creative Writing” where I had to read many critical and creative Utopian/Dystopian books. One book that really inspired me, and remained one of my favorite books of all time, was Aldous Huxley‘s “A Brave New World“. I wanted to imagine the brave new world of the next century. Aldous’s happiness-inducing drug “soma” inspired the de-aging nano-bots golden pill of Heaven on Earth.

I finished writing the book a year after I completed my MA. At the time, I wanted to capitalize on my local success in Jordan and aim for a regional reach. I approached Dar Al Adab in Beirut, one of the most prestigious and strongest publishing houses in the Arab world, in summer of 2014. Their reading committee report came two months later with a positive outcome. They accepted to publish the book, and I couldn’t be happier.

It wasn’t the overwhelming success that my first book saw; some people loved it, others didn’t. Sci-fi is a niche in the Arab world, and you rarely find such stories in Arabic. Nevertheless, those who loved it, loved it dearly.

The book came out in the fall of that year, and I was happy to see it on the monthly best-selling list of a Jordanian online bookstore that no longer exists for the first 3 months. It was a bestseller in Virgin Megastore and Readers Bookshop in Amman as well. Readers’ reactions were not all the same. It wasn’t the overwhelming success that my first book saw; some people loved it, others didn’t. Sci-fi is a niche in the Arab world, and you rarely find such stories in Arabic. Nevertheless, those who loved it, loved it dearly. My critical, hard-to-please brother said it was one of his top 5 books of all time. A friend read it and wanted another copy to gift to her grandma. Zaid Bawab wrote an entire film script for the book and won an award from the Royal Film Commission to develop the script. Tarek Abdo hosted me as the main speaker at the Aleph conference in December of that year to launch the book in Amman. Such beautiful reactions motivated me to write a sequel to it, which came out last year.

Meeting Aubrey De Grey

During my presentation at the launch event of the book, I talked about Aubrey De Grey. I had his photo on stage behind me. Two years later, he was visiting Dubai. He was hosted to give a talk about his approach to defeat aging by Cafe Scientifique. I DIDNT miss it. I rushed into the cafe, so excited to meet the person who promises to make me live a much longer life, only to bump into him, face to face. I stood there with a huge smile on my face and said “Mr. De Grey! HI!”, to which he replied, “Where is the bathroom?”.

I told him it is outside and took a seat, disappointed with out initial encounter. I waited until the end of the session and approached him again. I had a printout of my session in Amman, with his photo behind me on stage, which caught his attention. I told him how he inspired me to write this book and promised to send him a copy when the book comes out in English. When I signed with Signal8Press later, I emailed Aubrey and asked him for a book blurb. I sent him the manuscript, and he gladly honored me with one.

The Success of Heaven on Earth

For many years, I felt that Janna Ala Al Ard is the underdog. I felt that the success of my first book overshadowed it. But I never doubted its potential. I loved this story and loved how creative it allowed me to be. It came out in English by Signal8Press in 2017 and in Italian by Future Fiction last year. With the French release, it is now like Arous Amman, out in 4 languages.It has an audio book by Storytel، a developed film script, a new print that was released last year, a sequel (Amal Ala Al Ard).. and a 3rd book that is in progress, which will make it my first trilogy!

I love the world I created.

A last word

Yesterday while I was thinking about it, how things have changed over the years for me. Although I am still hoping for a scientific breakthrough that will fix aging, I would say that at the age of 33 I feared death more than aging. Today, at the age of 45, I fear aging more than death. I don’t want either.