Of all Arab writers whose works of literature I’m acquainted with , Fateh Mudarres , a contemporary Syrian painter and author of short stories , is the one who , in vision , attitude towards , and treatment  of , subject , most notably the central role given to physical nature , and attitude to religion , comes closest to that half-Victorian and half- modernist novelist , Thomas Hardy.

Within the two media of the short story and novel , both portray a world where it seems ever the destiny of Good to be ground by Evil , where social injustice is rife and feudalism , economic as well as moral , is still the fashion and , in brief , where spiritual melancholy , darkness and death reign supreme . An ancient and a lasting theme, indeed!