Forthcoming December 2025: Satire and Contemporary Arab Theater in Translation
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.
The Completely True Tales of Um Mimi and Sharawi the Adulterer by Belal Fadl, translated by Osama Hammad (Dar Arab, December 15, 2025)
From the publisher:
When a seventeen-year-old flees his abusive father to chase his dream of becoming a writer, he lands in a crumbling Cairo apartment with a chain-smoking landlady and her explosive son. What follows is a whirlwind of survival, misfits, late-night monologues, and the thin line between truth and fiction.
The Completely True Tales of Um Mimi and Sharawi the Adulterer is a sharp, hilarious, and deeply moving translated Arabic novel that lays bare the intimate lives of Cairo’s underclass in the 1990s. Originally published in Arabic and now longlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, this cult favourite by Belal Fadl—one of Egypt’s most daring satirists—appears in English for the first time.
With biting humor and emotional depth, Fadl paints an unforgettable portrait of youth, class, and art in a decaying city, where love and betrayal are traded as fast as cigarettes. Translator Osama Hammad expertly captures the novel’s crackling wit, energy, and bruised tenderness.
For fans of Mohamed Choukri and Khairy Shalaby, this translated Arabic novel blends satire and sincerity in equal measure.
Futures: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab Theater (53rd State Press, December 2025)
From the publisher:
An anthology of six new plays written in Arabic, published here in English translation. Including five plays selected from over 500 submissions to Masrah Ensemble’s 2021 Open Call and one by Masrah Ensemble’s former playwright-in-residence, these six texts—by Yasser Abu Shaqra, Wael Kadour, Arzé Khodr, Rim Mejdi, Sami Nasr, and Leila Toubel—represent a diverse array of voices and styles, and push at the limits of theatrical form and public discourse. The volume features an introduction by theater writer/director/academic Hanan Kassab Hassan along with short introductions to the plays by US-based playwrights Lucas Baisch, Jess Barbagallo, Jordan Baum, Agnes Borinsky, Nazareth Hassan, and Haruna Lee.
They are:
Sometimes We Remember by Arzé Khodr (Lebanon)
Translated by Clem Naylor, with an introduction by Nazareth Hassan
A Fornesian diamond of a play that unfolds in a series of seemingly simple domestic and urban scenes, about the lure of dwelling in memories of war.
Braveheart by Wael Kadour (Syria)
Translated by Clem Naylor, with an introduction by Lucas Baisch
A play about a woman writing a novel about her experiences being interrogated by secret police, with the help of a friend who asks her questions, and whom she uses as a muse. But is he her friend and lover? Or is he her former interrogator? How do you move out of a state of war into a time of presumed stability?
Ruby by Leila Toubel (Tunisia)
Translated by Hisham Ben Khamsa, with an introduction by Haruna Lee
A rhythmic monologue, lyrical and dark, in which a woman unpacks a life of misogyny and violence as she prepares to meet her daughter for the first time.
Uprooting; Or, the Cat and Dog Pizza Chapters by Sami Nasr (Tunisia)
Translated by Jonas Elbousty, with an introduction by Jess Barbagallo
A dizzying trip into a world of violence and distortion, by way of the Biblical Song of Songs. In which cats are nailed to walls, and two lovers seek to become one.
Eternity by Rim Mejdi (Morocco)
Translated by Caline Nasrallah, with an introduction by Jordan Baum
A young woman is stuck on a train, and just wants to get off. An allegorical knot of a play that moves between liveness and video, vernacular and formal Arabic, with interludes from Rimbaud’s French.
Left Out Gone Bad by Yasser Abu Shaqra (Palestine/Syria)
with an introduction by Agnes Borinsky
A Syrian family arrives as refugees in Europe, where life does not resemble what they imagined. Over the course of the play, each member of the family finds themselves backed deeper and deeper into a corner, and “safety” proves a devil’s bargain.
Bonus: Palestinian literature in English forthcoming December 2025
Two Shores, One Sea: Longing for Palestine’s Mediterranean, by Suja Sawafta (Bored Wolves, December 2025)