This first novel by a Saudi author written in French is a story of growing up in a small Saudi village steeped in traditional tribal culture, local legends, family ties, history, and tribal songs, told through the eyes of young Ahmed. As he becomes a man, the cataclysmic changes of modernity spring up around him. […]
“The Long Way Back” tells the story of four generations of the same family living in an old house in the Bab al-Shaykh area of Baghdad. Through the layering of the overlapping worlds of the characters, their private conflicts and passions are set against the wider drama of events leading up to the overthrow of […]
The poor, the dispossessed, the opportunist — all flock to the newly oil-rich state of Barqais in search of wealth. A Woman of Five Seasons vividly explores the relations that develop in such countries between local high officials and incoming heartland Arabs. Alongside this a second, highly relevant theme is developed: the poignant coming of […]
Love and death and the passage between entry into the world and exit from it are the focus of this collection of short stories. Buthaina Al Nasiri is an Iraqi author who has lived in Cairo since 1979. Despite this physical and temporal distance from her homeland, much of her material derives from it and […]
A young woman comes of age in modern Iraq in this lyrical debut. The unnamed narrator recalls her early childhood on a farm in the small village of Zafraniya, outside of Baghdad. It is a mostly peaceful time in the country: the narrator attends the School of Music and Ballet in the mornings and her […]
A multi-layered novel about the depths of human experience and the struggle between polarities, “Rama and the Dragon” presents a love story of unrequited passion between Rama – the symbol of multiplicity and creativity – and Mikhail – the symbol of unity and constancy. Their story reflects the relationship not only between man and woman, […]
The first of Zakaria Tamer’s collections of stories to be published in English as a complete unit, “Breaking Knees” is a daring work of art that deals with taboo subjects like religion and sexuality in a frank manner and expresses an urgently felt need for change. The general theme of “Breaking Knees”, as of much […]
Shaykh Abdelmajid Boularwah embarks upon a journey from Algiers to Constantine in search of lost relatives who might help him defraud the new socialist government in its attempt to implement land reform. On the way, he battles the forces of a changing society and confronts the demons of his past.
At the intersection of tradition and modernity, East and West, childhood and adulthood, Hanan al-Shaykh’s characters find their way through the shifting and ambiguous power relationships that shape the landscape of the modern Arab world. A woman feigns insanity to escape from an empty marriage, only to have her plans backfire; a young Danish missionary […]