A 12-year-old boy returns from his school in Cairo to find his village torn by feud and fear. A corrupt official has ordered the peasants to irrigate their fields in five days, instead of the customary ten – a demand which threatens to disrupt the whole life of the village. A schoolmaster, Sheikh Hassouna, urges […]
Gardens of the Night tells of a Libyan professor’s struggle against personal demons. It is a haunting exploration of the clashes between violence and sexuality, tradition and modern life, repression and uninhibited freedom. From its evocative opening in Edinburgh to its tragic denouement in Tripoli, this complex interweaving of fantasy and the mundane grips the […]
The first English translation of a major Arab writer’s novel that reveals the lifestyle and beliefs of a Bedouin tribe in the 1930s. Set in an unnamed Persian Gulf kingdom, the story tells of the cultural confrontation between American oilmen and a poor oasis community.
“A dream of a debut, by turns troubling and glorious, angry and wise. With her spare elegant prose Lalami has constructed a world remarkable for its resilience, its vibrancy, its motion, and yes, its hope.” —PULITZER PRIZE WINNER JUNOT DÍAZ, AUTHOR OF DROWN “Laila Lalami’s compelling work of fiction provides an anatomy of hope and […]
Ten years ago Zana Muhsen escaped from the life of slavery in the Yemen into which her father had sold her as a child bride, leaving behind her baby son, her sister Nadia, and Nadia’s two small children. As she described so powerfully in her internationally bestselling book SOLD, Zana made a solemn vow to […]
The Art of Forgetting is an elegant and warm-hearted meditation on love, damage, survival and restoration from an exhilarating stylist. As the title suggests, The Art of Forgetting offers women advice on how to move beyond the destructive men to a happier life. Full of wit and warmth, from an author who speaks from her […]
After ne’er-do-wells spread rumors about a widowed mother’s weak moral character among the people of a slum on the outskirts of Tunis that festers with migrants who have come to the metropolis from the heartland in search of a better life, her twenty-year-old son takes matters into his own hands and commits an unspeakable crime. […]
Award-winning novelist Bensalem Himmich’s third novel to be translated into English is a vertiginous exploration of one of Islam’s most radical thinkers, the Sufi philosopher Ibn Sab’in. Born in Spain, he was forced to immigrate to Africa because of his controversial views. Later expelled from Egypt, Ibn Sab’in made his way to Mecca, where he […]