The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist (Arabic: الوقائع الغريبة في اختفاء سعيد أبي النحس المتشائل) is a 1974 satirical epistolary novel by Emile Habibi.
[1] The novel's name comes from merging the Arabic words for pessimist (al-mutasha'im المتشائم) and optimist (al-mutafa'il المتفائل), to describe the narrator Saeed's unique way of viewing the world.
[2] Saeed, the novel's narrator, frequently recounts tragic events related to his family and the plight of Palestinians, but he adds in comic flourishes to highlight his "optimistic" side.
Habibi used a comic mode to mitigate the intensity of his world in Israel and to make the story easier for readers to understand.
[3] The story begins with a Palestinian man named Saeed, who writes in a letter to an unnamed recipient that he was visited by aliens from outer space.