Bartleby and his friends

Author's name: Enrique Bella-Matasdar Publisher: Dar Al-Mada for Publishing and Distribution Year of publication: 2018 Literary classification: Novel Brief about the book: The novel "Bartleby and His Companions" monitors the chronic illness that affects a large number of writers worldwide, which is the disease of abandoning writing and cursing it at some point in their lives, which the author described as the "No" disease. The novel varies in style between stories of the protagonist isolated from his world and following and investigating similar effects in global literature, as well as entering the world of famous writers who abandoned writing, trying to understand the meaning of that in their lives and works. The protagonist of the novel, Bartleby, is an introverted character with no goal in life except being in his workplace; he is a character rejecting doing anything. Through the protagonist, the author discusses writers who refused to continue writing or who found no purpose in literature and art, which made them reject it completely. It is noted that the novel "Bartleby and His Companions" was first published in 2000, and it received the award for the most important contemporary novel in Spain, France, and Italy consecutively: the Barcelona City Award 2001, the Fernando Ageri Bricks Award 2002, and the Bricks Miller Libre Award for the most important foreign work in France and Italy. It also ranked second among the top 10 Spanish novels of the last two decades in a poll by the literary magazine "Kimera."