Forthcoming 2026: Arabic Literature in Translation

Mariam, It’s Arwa, by Areej Gamal, tr. Addie Leak (AUC Press, Mar 24, 2026)

From the publisher:

It is during the 2011 Egyptian revolution that Arwa and Mariam meet in a subway station near Cairo University. Arwa has returned from Germany to join the protests, and their chance encounter is to change the course of Mariam’s sheltered existence. They tell each other the stories of their mothers and grandmothers, the histories that have brought them to this point. Mariam was born in Saudi Arabia, and first set foot in Egypt after both her parents were killed in a car accident. Arwa’s mother also died a tragic, early death, and she, traveling in the opposite direction as Mariam, left Egypt to escape. This is a mesmerizing and otherworldly debut novel about finding salvation and finding oneself, despite the anguish and traumas of the past. It pivots on the present moment of Arwa and Mariam’s unexpected union, and at its heart is a recognition of the women who came before them.

A Mask the Color of the Sky, by Bassem Khandaqji, tr. Addie Leak (Europa, March 17, 2026)

From the publisher:

Nur, a young Palestinian refugee from a camp near Ramallah, is often mistaken for an Ashkenazi Jew. Fluent in Hebrew and with a degree in archaeology, he dreams of freedom beyond the fences of the camp—and of writing a novel about Mary Magdalene based on the Gnostic Gospels. When he discovers an Israeli ID card in the pocket of a secondhand coat, he assumes a false identity and is hired for an archaeological dig near Megiddo. Passing as an Israeli, he moves through a world previously off-limits, gaining insight into the lives and beliefs of those he’s been taught to see as enemies.

But as Nur’s borrowed identity deepens, so does the rift within: between Nur, the Palestinian, and “Ur,” the Israeli. By exploring this internal conflict, unfolding alongside friendships and love affairs, Bassem Khandaqji offers a meditation on the personal toll of occupation and the elusive desire to belong somewhere—fully, honestly, and without fear.

The Raven of Ruwi and Other Stories from Oman, by Hamoud Saud, tr Zia Ahmed, foreword Jokha Alharthi (Syracuse University Press, March 2026)

From the publisher:

In this lyrical collection, Omani author Hamoud Saud invites readers into the soul of Muscat, the capital city of Oman, a country famed for its long coastline, rugged mountains, and stark desert landscapes. This geography provides the backdrop for stories that reveal both the beauty and hardship of a country and people on the margins. Saud’s Muscat is not a postcard-perfect city but a living, breathing place of cement forests, forgotten roundabouts, and ravens perched on bank flagpoles. In “The Raven of Ruwi,” a narrator wanders the city’s commercial district where Indian music drifts from balconies and the streets are filled with weary bank workers. In “The Sad Donkey of Muscat,” a blind man recounts the city’s history as told to him by a donkey. And in “Post Office of the Dead,” a forgotten postmaster receives letters from Dostoevsky and Kafka, triggering a surreal unraveling of time and identity. These stories are fabulist in spirit but grounded in the textures of everyday life: the scent of karak tea, the chatter of schoolgirls, the heat rising from asphalt. Through them, Saud explores themes of displacement, nostalgia, and the erasure of memory in the face of rapid urbanization. At once intimate and expansive, The Raven of Ruwi and Other Stories from Oman is a powerful meditation on place, identity, and the stories that cities tell.

Sa’iba, by Alis al-Bustani, tr. Marilyn Booth (Oxford World’s Classics, March 12 2026)

From the publisher:

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, the focus is on what happens after the wedding, as the eponymous heroine has to fend off a jealous cousin who believes he has a right to her. Drawing on motifs of Victorian Gothic writing, brought into an Arab-Turkish fictional context, the novel powerfully shows the continuing hold of old ideas about women’s sexual susceptibility and moral ‘weakness’, as such ideas were slowly giving way among educated Arab and other Ottoman middle classes to new ideals of companionship in marriage.

April

The Country Doctor’s Tale, by Mohamed Mansi Qandil, tr. R. Neil Hewison (Syracuse University Press, April 2026)

From the publisher:

Red Like Orange: A Novel, by Charles Akl, tr. Sarah Enany (AUC Press, Jun 2, 2026)

From the publisher:

Following a breakup with his long-term girlfriend, “Local,” as he is known to his friends, moves from Alexandria to Cairo. In his new apartment, he discovers an old accordion, while his roommate unexpectedly decides to take up the saxophone, despite never having touched one before. And so, in the blistering summer heat, the two of them, without any formal training, dive into their first musical experiment: they put his mother’s cookbook to music. Along with an eccentric assortment of acquaintances and occasional bandmates, Local crashes through his twenties and in and out of Cairo hangouts, heated debates on different music scenes, and various impromptu jam sessions and attempts at musical production. This is a raucous journey through offbeat downtown Cairo in the early 2000s and the music of the era, from Mohamed Mounir to Pink Floyd. Suffused with a sardonic humor and full of hilarious observations, Red Like Orange vividly chronicles life lived just outside the mainstream.

The Third Bank of the Jordan River, by Hussein Barghouthi, tr. Áthar Barghouthi (Seagull Books, June 2026)

From the publisher:

In this profound and evocative novel, acclaimed Palestinian author Hussein Barghouthi invites readers on an extraordinary, youthful journey through a landscape of memory, longing, alienation, and exile. Translated with great sensitivity by his son, Áthar Barghouthi, this deeply personal narrative unfurls as a stream-of-consciousness odyssey, blurring the lines between reality and dream. Haunted by a pervasive sense of loss, the prose, rich with poetic imagery, explores themes of displacement, identity, and the enduring shadows of a contested homeland. The Third Bank of the Jordan River is a powerful, meditative work that defies conventional boundaries. With unflinching honesty, Barghouthi confronts the political through deeply human stories, capturing the restless search for meaning and the enduring human hunger for connection and freedom.

Asad’s Secret, by Najlaa Attaallah, tr. Sawad Hussain (Levine Querido, June 2, 2026)

From the publisher:

Asad lives in Gaza, in a tiny house, on a narrow street pocked by half-destroyed buildings, in a camp that looks shabby to him and feels claustrophobic. He walks virtually the same route every day to his summer job at a printing press, passing the prison that holds his father, for reasons that have not been fully explained to him. As the oldest son, he feels the weight of responsibility for his seven brothers, his sisters, and his Ummi, who wants him to study hard and excel in school, as all mothers do. Moody and reserved Asad has few friends, and fewer distractions. Thank goodness for Um Fawzi, a feisty, cigarette-smoking old woman, who’s the only one who seems willing to tell it like it is, sharply enough, and with a biting sense of humor that snaps him out of his fog sometimes. There’s also Houriya, a lovely and smart girl, who brings him books to read and sometimes prompts him to think about a future that he can’t truly imagine. There seems to be no escaping. But Asad has a secret, too, a mysterious black bag that holds something important that he keeps hidden from everyone. This rare novel by and about Palestinians showcases this boy whose life is never easy, even as it’s filled with the longing, the bruised hopes, and the frustrations of any seventeen-year-old.

July

Star of August, by Sonallah Ibrahim, tr. Anne Willborn (Seagull Books, July 2026)

From the publisher:

In the summer of 1965, a journalist newly released from prison finds himself stranded at the sprawling site of the Aswan High Dam, the flagship project of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s modern Egypt. Amid oppressive heat, unreliable transport, a mysterious epidemic, and the oppressive gaze of state surveillance, he confronts a dramatic transformation underway: villages erased, communities displaced, and a rich past disappearing beneath the waters of a new lake. As the journalist journeys south along the Nile, his observations illuminate a key moment in Cold War politics and a society wrestling with the promises and perils of progress. Originally published in Arabic in 1974, Star of August is a masterwork by Sonallah Ibrahim—a writer who lived through these upheavals firsthand—and a timeless exploration of ideology, power, and the price of change.

August

The Devil Turns Preacher: Eight One-act Plays, by Naguib Mahfouz, tr Sarah Enany and Nehad Selaiha (AUC Press, August 18, 2026)

From the publisher:

Naguib Mahfouz is a literary icon, and the only Arab writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. He has been celebrated across the globe for his novels and short stories, which have been translated into over forty languages. But what is not known by many is that he made a foray into drama: he wrote eight one-act plays in the 1960s and 1970s. They were performed in Cairo at the time and then largely forgotten – overtaken by his immensely successful fiction writing. These forgotten gems showcase Mahfouz’s bold storytelling and mastery of suspense and pace. Eclectic in their dramatic style and suggesting far-reaching dramatic influences from Ionesco to Camus to Beckett. They are filled with political subtext and symbolize, in dramatic form, a monumental period in Egyptian history, including war with Israel and the death of Nasserism.