Ḥannā Mīna (1924-2018) is one of the most studied and revered of all modern Syrian novelists. He dedicated his literary and personal life to representing the trials, tribulations, hopes, and desires of the working class and the poor. Mīna's biography is intimately connected to both Syrian political and literary history: born in the port city of Latakia (al-Lādhiqiyya), he grew up in the sanjak ("district") of Alexandretta, which was handed over to Turkey in 1939. His father worked as a sharecropper under the feudal systems employed by