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:
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.
Red Like Orange, by Charles Akl, tr. Sarah Enany (AUC Press / Hoopoe, June 2 2026)
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.
We will also have an excerpt and a talk with the translator.
The Book of Damascus, ed. Zaher Omareen (Comma Press, June 4 2026)
Damascus is a city of contradictions. Simultaneously the oldest city in the world, rich with Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic architecture, and one of the most modern and developed in the Middle East, it stands at a cross-roads between East and West, the past and the future, peace and war. It fully merits its titles ‘City of Jasmine’ and ‘the Pearl of the East’, while being torn by multiple layers of recent trauma, oppressive militarisations and the constant threat of crack-downs from consecutive regimes. After the devastating Civil War ground the city to a stalemate, more recent tensions have compounded the psychological trauma of that war with new fears. And yet, the people of Damascus maintain their reputation for being some of the warmest, kindest, most welcoming people in the world.
The stories in this anthology reflect some of these contradictions, with tales of love, heartbreak, political satire and absurdity. Featuring writers both from and currently living in the city, it captures glimpses of the ongoing struggles Syrians face that no amount of journalism could come close to.
The Third Bank of the Jordan River, by Hussein Barghouthi, tr. Áthar Barghouthi (Seagull Books, June 5 2026)
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.
Sa’iba, by Alis al-Bustani, tr. Marilyn Booth (Oxford World’s Classics, June 11 2026)
From the publisher:
