The year: sometime in the 2090s. The location: Jordan. Aging is reversible thanks to major advances in bioscience and nanotechnology. But in a world where eternal youth has become a reality, complications arise. Journalist Janna Abdallah is at the forefront of these changes: her brother Jamal contributed to many of the medical advances that have brought such profound changes to humanity over the past few decades, yet he has chosen to forego age suppression in order to experience a natural death. Because reproduction is strictly regulated, the opportunity to create new life throws the Abdallah family into turmoil. Fadi Zaghmout’s best-selling debut novel The Bride of Amman was groundbreaking for its intimate, sympathetic treatment of women’s issues, homosexuality, and marriage in the Middle East. Heaven on Earth is no less revolutionary, at once a searingly personal account of one family’s struggle to embrace the future that is now, and also a look at the way Jordanian society has had to reimagine itself at the end of the twenty-first century.
* Catalan & Spanish translations in work by Eter Edicions ** For other languages translation rights, contact me directly:fadizaghmout@yahoo.com
Blurbs
In this valuable novel, Fadi Zaghmout puts a personal face to the world we are all longing for (some of us more secretly than others). It is an interesting and realistic read, showing humanity as it has always been but with a new dawn of life where the infirmity of old age is a choice.”
– Aubrey de Grey, Chief Science Officer, SENS Research Foundation
Fadi Zaghmout’s Heaven on Earth presents a fascinating vision of a future world devoid of the aging process, merging many themes, including technological, social, and legal that researchers, investors, regulators, and legislators, in today’s day and age, must grapple with in lieu of the unavoidable paradigm shift that will be arriving – a must read for anyone involved directly or tangentially in the age-reversal scientific community.
— Ira S. Pastor, CEO BioQuark Inc., Rejuvenation Biotechnology Company.
Heaven on Earth defies easy or thematic classification, and in doing so, speaks strongly to the vivid diversity of contemporary Arab SF.
What happens when science defeats aging? Check this original arabic scifi novel that explores a near future where eternal youth is attainable! #heaveonearth
طبعة جديدة من رواية جنّة على الأرض عن دار الأهلية للنشر والتوزيع
جنّة وجيهان وجمال وزيد، أبطال يعيشون صراعات تتعلّق بوقائع جديدة أنتجها التطوّر العلمي الهائل: البقاء في مرحلة الشباب الدائم، العودة إلى الطفولة مع محو الذاكرة من أجل صنع حياة جديدة. إعادة استنساخ لأحبّاء فُقدوا… ومسائل أخرى لن تكون جزءًا من الخيال، بل ستصبح قريبًا واقعًا لا مفرّ منه. تتصارع الرغبات وتتناحر الشخصيّات، لتؤكّد هذه الرواية أنّ الإنسان هو الإنسان، وأنّ الأجيال نفسها تشرب من الكأس نفسه
Paradiso in Terra
Giordania, 2090. L’invecchiamento è diventato un fenomeno reversibile grazie agli incredibili progressi della biotecnologia. Eppure, persino in un mondo dove l’eterna giovinezza è una realtà, continuano a esserci complicazioni. Jamal Abdallah, fratello della giornalista Janna, protagonista della storia, ha contribuito a molti dei progressi medici che hanno allungato l’aspettativa di vita dell’umanità negli ultimi decenni, e tuttavia proprio lui ha scelto di rinunciare alla possibilità dell’eterna giovinezza per morire in modo naturale. Ma poiché la riproduzione è strettamente controllata, l’opportunità di creare una nuova vita – in seguito alla morte di Jamal – getta l’intera famiglia Abdallah nello scompiglio. Paradiso in Terra è al tempo stesso un resoconto personale della lotta di una famiglia per abbracciare il futuro e uno sguardo sul modo in cui la società giordana ha dovuto reinventare se stessa alla fine del ventunesimo secolo.
Fadi Zaghmout è un autore giordano e attivista per l’uguaglianza di genere. Ha conseguito un master in scrittura creativa e pensiero critico presso la Sussex University nel Regno Unito. Ha pubblicato quattro romanzi, tra cui La sposa di Amman (MReditori, 2022). Le sue opere sono state tradotte in inglese, francese e italiano. Nel 2021, è stato tra i finalisti dello UK Alumni Global Award nella categoria “impatto sociale”.
Traduzione dall’arabo di Roberta Loi Illustrazione di copertina di Paolo Castelluccio
Published: 2023 Publisher: Future Fiction Translated by: Roberta Loi
Fadi has managed to pack most of the recurring themes in science fiction into a fairly compact book, treating them in a highly original way. The irony that underlies the entire narrative stands out, and that was one of the most difficult challenges in translating the novel, to which I hope I have done justice in its Italian translation.
At university they teach us that translation involves not only two languages, but two cultures, and I fully understood what it truly means only while translating this book, deeply rooted in Jordanian culture. The reason lies precisely in Fadi’s focus on the social consequences to which the pill of eternal youth leads. In particular, the several religious references in relation to my translation deserve prominence, because this is undoubtedly the aspect that constituted the greatest cultural challenge for me, and at the same time one of the translation processes that I enjoyed the most.
Roberta Loi
Translator of Paradiso in Terra
Libertà di vivere o di morire. Paradiso in Terra di Fadi Zaghmout
di Andrea Pighin
La scelta finale di Janna mi ha infastidito, e questo per me è un merito dell’Autore. Mi ha fatto pensare che forse, per davvero, quando una tecnologia fa la sua comparsa bisogna cominciare a chiedersi come sia possibile adattarsi alle nuove potenzialità, continuando a restare umani e senza autodistruggersi.
Amman, 2091. La vieillesse peut être soignée comme toute autre maladie et le gouvernement est sur le point de voter une loi imposant la pilule de jouvence à toute la population.
Jannah, journaliste et écrivaine défendant les libertés individuelles, voit son monde et ses convictions s’écrouler quand son frère Jamal décide de mourir.
Entre immortalité, retour à la jeunesse et clonage, Fadi Zaghmout nous plonge dans cette Jordanie futuriste où toute folie semble être permise.
“Heaven on Earth” by Fadi Zaghmout is a truly fascinating book capable of giving us important reflections on what would happen if we could be young forever”
“Fadi Zaghmout n’a pas la prétention de nous livrer une grande histoire de combats et d’aventures, mais l’expérience d’une protagoniste tiraillée entre amour et devoir, entre ses valeurs et ses désirs. C’est peut-être pour ça que Paradis synthétique est aussi facile à aborder, car il nous offre une histoire à l’échelle humaine, un récit de vie touchant, presque un journal intime.”
Fadi Zaghmout 