Winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for LiteratureA Top 100 Literary Work of the Twentieth Century (The Arab Writers Union)"Absorbing . . . Superbly translated . . . . Arguably the best modern [Egyptian] novel not written by Nobel laureate Mahfouz."—Kirkus ReviewsA landmark in women's writing set during the struggle for Egyptian independenceFebruary 1946: Cairo is engulfed by demonst...

WINNER OF THE 2025 SAIF GHOBASH BANIPAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC LITERARY TRANSLATION"An evocative, unpredictable novel."—Words Without BordersA breathtaking novel of longing, uncertainty, and ultimately of hopeAzzan is a beekeeper in a rural community in Oman. Devoted to tending his bees and searching for wild hives, he encounters Thamna, a lone shepherd woman, on a mountain slope and is captivated by her and her ...

Hassan Daoud is one of the Arabic language world's premier novelists, with a good media profile. He is the editor of the cultural supplement in Beirut's daily paper, and his work has appeared in the European and American press as well -- he was published in 2006 in the New York Times Magazine.Four of Daoud's novels have been translated into English, and this work has been long listed for the Arabic Booker Prize, and The Penguin's Song was hailed as the "Best Arabic Novel of the Yea...

This novel of home and homelessness, of exile both physical and psychological, centers on Kimi, a fragile heroine suffering from a rift in her persona, unable to distinguish between her own pain and the pain of others. For Kimi it is not a simple case of to be or not to be, but rather of how to be in disjointed and contrary times. Leaves of Narcissus, like earlier Arabic novels about East-West encounters by male writers such as Tawfiq al-Hakim, Taha Hussein, and Tayeb Salih, is about a you...

A deeply compassionate portrait of a cosmopolitan group of friends—a glimpse of the volatility of life under totalitarian rule, from Egypt's most celebrated contemporary novelist.It is 1964 in Alexandria. Nasser has risen to power and, faced with the upheaval of his regime, many Alexandrians fled Egypt. But this particular group of locals and European expats have instead chosen to stay. They gather nightly in the bar upstairs at the elegant waterfront restaurant Ar...

In a small Lebanese village a disillusioned imam, diagnosed with terminal cancer, must face his demons. Having consented to an arranged marriage, he has found himself in a loveless union and lusts after another. To please his family, he took up the robe and turban of his forefathers but the expected path to fulfillment did not unfold before him. Meticulous, sparse prose quietly evokes the essence of rural life and the burden of tradition. Hassan Daoud's masterful novel plumbs the depths of...

'Let us go on, then! And I will tell you the story of my sister and her daughter, from beginning to end.' Alis al-Bustani's Sa'iba (1891) is one of the earliest known novels authored in Arabic by a female writer. Written when the Arabic novel was only in its third or fourth decade, it takes up the leading fictional theme of the era: the question of young people's choices in marriage in a society where their elders traditionally made these decisions. In Sa'iba

'Let us go on, then! And I will tell you the story of my sister and her daughter, from beginning to end.' Alis al-Bustani's Sa'iba (1891) is one of the earliest known novels authored in Arabic by a female writer. Written when the Arabic novel was only in its third or fourth decade, it takes up the leading fictional theme of the era: the question of young people's choices in marriage in a society where their elders traditionally made these decisions. In Sa'iba

Zaynab Fawwaz (d. 1914) emerged from an obscure childhood in the Shi'I community of Jabal 'Amil (now Lebanon) to become a recognized writer on women's and girls' aspirations and rights in 1890s Egypt. This book insists on the centrality of gender as a marker of social difference to the Arabic knowledge movement then, or Nahda. Fawwaz published essays and engaged in debates in the Egyptian and Ottoman-Arabic press, published two novels, and the first play known to have been composed in Arab...

“Alsanea's wisdom and insight into the female experience seem surreal. She captures the core, universal truths of the complications in finding and holding a life partner. Her characters provide wisdom to each other that are astounding in their accuracy, and Alsanea thus speaks for countless women everywhere.” —Bookreporter.comWhen Rajaa Alsanea boldly chose to open up the hidden world of Saudi women—their private lives and their conflicts with the traditio...

This collection of short stories, recipient of a 1994 University of Arkansas Press Award for Arabic Literature in Translation, presents one of Egypt’s most innovative contemporary fiction writers. In her first collection published in English, Sahar Tawfiq explores the consciousnesses of young women alienated from their surroundings in today’s rapidly changing Egyptian society. In questioning the place of long-powerful myths and beliefs, she is in the forefront of writers examining the lega...

Winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, this novel weaves together a series of devastating confessions about life in contemporary Arab societyThis profound and disturbing novel by acclaimed Lebanese author Hoda Barakat tells the story of characters living on the periphery, battling with poverty, and fighting their own demons.Set in an unnamed, war-torn country, the novel consists of six letters—all intercepted by unintended recipients, all of ...