This collection of short stories, both poignant and skillfully crafted, bring to life the tragic demise of traditional Nubian life and culture. If the earlier dams that were built across the Nile during the first half of the twentieth century caused increasing numbers of the men-folk to migrate north to Cairo and Alexandria to work […]
Who shot Kamar al-Dawla Alwan? Was it a crime of passion? What was the role of the beautiful peasant girl Rim? Is the mysterious Sheikh Asfur as crazy as he seems?Diary of a Country Prosecutor is a famous Egyptian comedy of errors. Partly autobiographical, it takes the form of a journal of a young public […]
Now regarded as a classic that was published initially in English in 1973 after being banned by the Moroccan government, and only in Arabic in 1982, it broke all taboos in the Arab world, being a stark autobiographical novel of a young street kid’s struggle to survive and get an education. At that time no […]
“Absent” is an affectionate, wry, funny portrait – sometimes darkly so – of the inhabitants of an apartment block in central Baghdad, juxtaposing the days of plenty that Iraq experienced in the 1970s and the tragic state of the country during the period of wars and sanctions. Most of the protagonists are female, highlighting the […]
A hard-hitting but poetic autobiographic account of growing up in war-torn Beruit introduces readers to a young man who is gradually being distanced from his family as the city falls apart around him. Original.
In this powerful novel, acclaimed Palestinian author Sahar Khalifeh examines the stark realities in the lives of Palestinian women. Through her protagonist, Zeynab, born to an American mother and a Palestinian father, Khalifeh illuminates the disorienting experience of living between two worlds, and the search for identity that mirrors the Palestinians’ own quest for nationhood. […]
A young Palestinian named Usama returns from working in the Gulf to support the resistance movement. His mission is to blow up buses transporting Palestinian workers into Israel.Shocked to discover that many of his fellow citizens have adjusted to life under military rule, Usama exchanges harsh words with friends and family. Despite uncertainty he sets […]
The year is 1970, a period of identity crisis in the Arab world. Hisham, the young hero of Adama, is now a university student in the big city, Riyadh. He expands his intellect by day and pursues heady, forbidden pleasures by night, indulging in arak, cigarettes and an illicit affair with his neighbour Sarah, a […]
In a town on the frontiers of Central Asia, an ambitious scribe feverishly dreams of writing his masterpiece. But before he can begin, he must find the perfect paper, a paper unimaginably beautiful, as pure as the mountain snows. It is the high noon of the nineteenth century, and the Shahs, the Sultans and the […]