If You’re in the UK: Visit Your Library
Arabia Books – launched in 2008 – is celebrating its fifth birthday this year. The publisher is marking the occasion by working with the UK’s Reading Agency to offer sets of the 26 books the house has published since 2008 to every library authority in the country:
That’s 211 library authorities in total.
Which of the Arabia titles should you choose? Well, if you’re looking for:
(Terrifying, gut-churning) page-turner from Algeria
Anouar Benmalek’s Abduction
Cross-cultural break-up book
Habib Selmi’s The Scents of Marie Claire
Thoughtful metafiction on Egypt and Palestine
Radwa Ashour’s Spectres
Poetic evocation of love
Iman Humaydan Younes’s Wild Mulberries
The beautiful texture of objects during a time of war
Hoda Barakat’s The Tiller of Waters
Wild, wild historical ride
Mohammad Mansi Qandil’s Moon Over Samarqand
All of the above
Emile Habibi’s Said the Pessoptimist
Also from Arabia:
On September 23, Arabia will be hosting an evening of discussion at Maida Vale library on contemporary Arab writing and its relevance to the English speaking world. It will be led by Arabia’s founder, Barbara Schwepcke.
An interview with Barbara Schwepke: 5 Years of Arabia Books: Expectation, Reality, and Lessons Learned
If you give one of Arabia’s books a read, please do send the Reading Agency your feedback.
More Arabic Literature and Translation Events this Month: From London to Brooklyn, Lucera to Los Angeles to Cairo… « Arabic Literature (in English)
September 14, 2013 @ 5:55 am
[…] the Maida Vale Library & Haus Publishing Present “Arab Fiction Today.” In April, Arabia Books donated a set of every one of its published works to every library authority in England. To celebrate Arabic literature in the English language, as […]