The debut novel, Suakin, evokes the maritime and historical atmosphere of the city of Suakin, where personal memory intertwines with layers of history, geography, and human relationships. The place itself becomes a parallel protagonist to the narrative, bearing its traces, details, streets, houses, and collective memory. The narrative moves between the present and the past, revealing how a single city can preserve within its details the voices of those who have departed and the events that have left their mark on the lives of its inhabitants. The sea emerges as a fundamental element in shaping the place, a means of connection, departure, and return, and simultaneously a space of loss and waiting. Individual stories intertwine with the history of Suakin and its transformations, making the city appear as a living memory, constantly changing but never losing its roots. Walid Makki pays particular attention to human relationships and the small details that make the place retrievable in memory. The duality of departure and remaining, and the resulting feelings of alienation and longing, are also prominent. The narrative language gives the story a reflective dimension, so that talking about the city is not just a geographical description, but an attempt to understand the relationship of man to his first place, and to the things he leaves behind when he is forced to leave or when the place around him changes.
