Gender studies in Arabic literature have become equated with women’s writing, leaving aside the possibility of a radical rethinking of the Arabic literary canon and Arab cultural history. While the ‘woman question’ in the Arabic novel has received considerable attention, the ‘male question’ has gone largely unnoticed. Now, Hoda Elsadda bucks that trend. Foregrounding voices that have been marginalised alongside canonical works, she engages with new directions in the novel tradition.