As publication dates often slip — and new books surface — we try to have a glance at what’s really (to the best of our knowledge) coming in translation from Arabic at the start of each month. If you have more books to add, please let us know.
From the publisher:
In 20th-century Alexandria, a half-blind Italian architect sits quietly in the courtyard of a mosque he once built—listening not for the call to prayer, but for the voice of a man who died 700 years ago.
Mario and Abu L-Abbas is a sweeping translated Arabic historical novel of spiritual defiance, secret love, and impossible friendships across time. Woven through the ruins of Andalusia and the rise of Cairo, it traces the mystical bond between a modern architect and Abu l-Abbas al-Mursi, the Andalusian Sufi who fled the Christian conquest and reshaped the spiritual life of medieval Egypt.
As a young writer stumbles into the story through a chance encounter on a plane, she finds herself drawn into a tale where truth blurs with vision, and history becomes intimate.
Written by Reem Bassiouney, one of the Arab world’s most compelling novelists, and translated by renowned scholar Roger Allen, this is a deeply moving translated Arabic historical novel about exile, devotion, and the lives we inherit—sometimes from those we’ve never met.
Read an excerpt on the publisher’s website.
From the publisher:
Yaqoub, a Kuwaiti man in his sixties, devotes all his time to managing his many successful businesses. His wife, frustrated by the deteriorating situation of their marriage, fills the void in her existence with unbridled consumption. But the luxury in which their family bathes cannot hide the echoes of a terrible absence, that of Ahmad, the youngest son, who has turned his back on his family to join a jihadist organization in Syria. When Yaqoub discovers an attraction—as irremediable as it is unexpected—for one of his employees, a young woman of Iranian origin, he almost loses his footing. Caught between worry for the fate of his son and the exaltation that this budding relationship gives him, he suddenly learns that Ahmad is being held hostage by a rival terrorist group who is demanding a colossal ransom.
This captivating and suspenseful novel—a true immersion in the daily life of an ultra-rich Kuwaiti family—questions desire, painful family dynamics, and the preoccupations with jihadism. Through the doubts of this patriarchal figure brought to review his life and his choices through the prism of unforeseen upheavals, it is the picture of a very current society that the author paints, in which generations and visions of the world are opposed.
From the publisher:
‘Palestine is everywhere because it names a political subject of radical universal emancipation,’ writes teacher and writer Nasser Abourahme. In Palestine is everywhere, writers, thinkers, poets and artists map the Palestinian struggle for freedom and its global resonances.
Vital dispatches from Gaza, essays, poems, protest chronicles, images and letters from prison reflect upon resistance, solidarity and the right to self-determination. Amid a world-historical moment marked by unknowability and loss, this collection offers essential reading for those interested in Palestinian liberation.
This collection is edited by Skye Arundhati Thomas, with contributions from Alaa Abd El-Fattah, Nasser Abourahme, Amal Al-Nakhala, Muhammad Al-Zaqzouq, Maisara Baroud, Ahmed Bassiouny, Houria Bouteldja, Anees Ghanima, Sahar Khalifeh, Laleh Khalili, Lujayn, Mira Mattar, Lina Meruane, Mohammed Mhawish, Nahil Mohana, Rahul Rao, Nasser Rabah, Adam Rouhana, Ahmad Zaghmouri.
Co-published by TBA21.
All royalties from this project will be donated to Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and The Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (APN).
Find more forthcoming Palestinian titles at our List in Progress: Palestinian Literature Forthcoming Fall 2025 or 2026.