Arabic Bestsellers for March 2010

This seems to be a month of non-fiction, at least at Kotob Khan (the only bookstore that seems to put out a monthly Arabic bestseller list). Alaa al Aswany’s two nonfiction titles, Why Don’t Egyptians Revolt? and Do We Deserve Democracy? are at the top of the list, along with Arabic Booker-winning Youssef Zeidan’s Arab Theology.

Bilal Fadl’s A Chagrined Laugh remains at the top of the list. All these titles were best-sellers at the Cairo International Book Fair this January.

New to the list this month is Gamal al-Ghitani’s 1977 novel Al-Rifai and Khaled al-Khamissi’s 2007 best-seller, Taxi. Journalist Ibrahim Issa has swapped one title (The Killing of the Big Man) for another (Men After the Prophet).

And while Arabic Booker 2010 shortlistee Mohamed Mansi Qandil’s A Cloudy Day on the West Side remains on the list, She Throws Sparks by Abdo Khal has disappeared.

I take no responsibility for the terrible title translations. They were clearly done by aliens. (See last month’s list here.)

1 -Why Don’t Egyptians Revolt? – Alaa Al Aswany

2 – A Chagrined Laugh – Bilal Fadl

3 – Arab Theology – Youssef Zeidan

4 – Paving Egypt – Omar Taher

5 – Do We Deserve Democracy? – Alaa Al Aswany

6 – Diary of Farah Pahlavi – Farah Pahlavi

7 – Two Rooms and a Hall – Ibrahim Aslan

8 -Rifai – Gamal al-Ghitani

9 – A Cloudy Day on the West Side – Mohamed Mansi Qandil

10 – Papers of Sadat – Anis Mansour

11 – Chairs – Yusuf Maati

12 – Men After the Prophet – – Ibrahim Issa

13 – Taxi – Khaled al-Khamissi

14 – The Days of Blue Windows – Adel Ismat

15 -The Flights of Ahmed Zewail – Hadil Ghoneim

16 – The Nectar of Life – Galal Amin

17 – A Country That Educated Them – Mustafa Shahib

18 – Zagazig – Ahmed Khaled Tawfiq

19 – Diamond Dust – Ahmed Mourad

20 – Epic Al-Srasso  – Ahmad Sabri Abu Fotouh