Emirati singing sensation turns author

Following the successful triumph of Omani author Jokha Alharthi at this year's Man Booker International Award as the first Arab winner, the next great Middle Eastern literary work has just signed an important book contract in the United Kingdom.

The internationally renowned Emirati singer Ahmed Bukhatir signed an important agreement with respected British publisher Matthew James for the first book of his exciting series of children's and youth fiction "Dragon Boy".

'AR', as he should be known in his new role as an author, has already seen his writing style compared to the legendary JRR Tolkien, now as another legend of English literature, the famous Polish Joseph Conrad, has written in his second language. , which can fill the gap left at the end of the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling and has already attracted great interest at the Cannes Film Festival.

The 43-year-old has consistently outperformed Virgin's Top 10 in the entire Middle East with his best-selling albums, including 'Hasanat', which has seen its global sales soar to millions and also accumulate a large following in the social networks with 2.3. . . millions of followers on Facebook, 129,000 followers on Twitter, 128,620 followers on Instagram and 197,700 YouTube subscribers.

But now, he is focusing all his attention on the upcoming release of 'Dragon Boy', the first in an epic fantasy series for children and young adults with MJ Publishing, as he plans to complete the singer's transition to the author.

An enchanted Bukhatir said: "The song is in my blood and I can never stop singing, but the writing has always been in me since I was a child, I just had not discovered that talent". Once I had the idea of ​​"Dragon Boy" I started writing immediately and fell in love with what I wrote, of course, this is a talent and all the talents needed to develop and polish, so this is what I did. From God, I have a finished novel. "

"The origin of Dragon Boy goes back to when I was 8. I was in the United States and I saw a movie called" The Never Ending Story ", which featured dragons, monsters and other fantastic creatures that absorbed, fascinated and fascinated. I have been very interested in this kind of fantastic fiction. "Over the years, the desire to produce some kind of work that presented this type of material only grew and grew in me, but I was not sure. How to fulfill my ambition to achieve it, "he said.

"About eight years ago, I was flying to Canada and I saw another movie called 'How to train your dragon' and that's when I decided that I had to write my own book for young people and that it would be called 'Dragon Boy' ...

"I thought there should be many other children and young people, who like me had been all these years, I would love this kind of story, I just wanted to share my version, my story and that's how 'Dragon Boy' came about."

An unpublished version of 'Dragon Boy' obtained the third place, of an entry of around 200 presentations, in the prestigious Montegrappa Writing Award for new writers of the CCG, which was judged by the renowned British literary critic Luigi Bonomi.

But now that 'A.R.' has been signed by Matthew James, 'Dragon Boy' will be launched in the UK in early 2020 along with a launch in Dubai.

AR's writing style has already been compared to the legendary writer JRR Tolkien, who wrote the billionaire "Lord of the Rings" and the biggest interest at the Cannes Film Festival last week was AR's representative, Susan Mears. . (Susan Mears Literary Agency, London) in discussion with four major film companies about the film rights of the series.

Bukhatir is delighted to have signed with a publisher in the United Kingdom.

"The UK produced great writers like Shakespeare, Dickens, Tolkien, JK Rowling and I wanted my book to be reviewed, read and loved by the people who recognized those great writers." The history that the United Kingdom has given to writers and books. It is much bigger than in any other country in the world and I wanted my novel "Dragon Boy" to be part of it, "he said.