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Forthcoming July 2026: Fantasy and the Fantastic

If you know about other Arab or Arabic literature forthcoming in English translation in July 2026, let us know.

Hush Now, Canary, by Mustafa Khalid, translated by William Hutchins (Dar Arab, July 6 2026)

From the publisher:

In a city strained by fear and uncertainty, lives intersect in fleeting moments of intimacy, loss, and endurance. Hush Now, Canary unfolds through a polyphonic structure, giving voice to the living, the displaced, the imprisoned, and the dead, each bearing witness to how ordinary life fractures under pressure. Blending stark realism with subtle surrealism, the novel resists grand explanations and instead lingers on gestures, silences, and the fragile persistence of memory.

A canary moves through the narrative as a recurring presence—at once observer, symbol, and thread—binding together stories shaped by disappearance and survival. Told with restraint and lyrical precision, Mustafa Khalid’s novel is less concerned with spectacle than with how people continue to speak, remember, and exist when certainty collapses. Translated with clarity and sensitivity by William Hutchins, Hush Now, Canary is a powerful work of contemporary literary fiction that affirms the endurance of voice in moments of profound rupture.

 

Suleima’s Ring, by Rima Bali, translated by Timothy Gregory (Interlink, July 28 2026)

From the publisher:

Unfolding across Aleppo and Toledo, it tells the interwoven stories of half Spanish, half Jewish photographer Lucas and Syrian protagonist Salma.

Switching between multiple narrators, it explores the relationships between Salma and Shams al-Din—an Italian musician living in Aleppo with whom she is infatuated—along with Lucas, Lucas’ girlfriend Lola, and his son.

Bali skillfully navigates the complexities of relationships, traditions, and the ever-elusive concept of truth. The novel, born in the historic city of Toledo, Spain, carries the fragrance of Aleppo, inviting readers to wander through its ancient alleys and rest on the banks of the Tagus River.

The titular ring, at times held by various characters, alludes to the legendary ring of Solomon with its fabled magical powers. Although Salma, Lucas, and Shams al-Din are distinct personalities from contrasting backgrounds, they all share one thing: their love for Aleppo, the enthralling and afflicted city buried under the rubble of dreams and lost opportunities.

Suleima’s Ring navigates Salma’s struggle between love and duty, past affluence, and a present marked by loss and conflict. The novel poses questions about Salma’s heart’s compass and her ultimate decision. Will she succumb to the sands of the past, or will she embrace the West’s taut bowstring? Will Suleima’s magic ring be enough to free the lost souls of Aleppo? Or will it take another Solomon to come to life and reassert his authority over the warring creatures who are left, if he can only find his lost ring?

Suleima’s Ring draws the reader into an atmosphere permeated by Sufism, perfume, dreams, and passionate love, against the backdrop of the Syrian war.

The Book of Damascus, ed. Zaher Omareen (Comma Press, July 23 2026)

From the publisher:

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.

Although we gave an earlier pub date, it’s definitely got to launch this month, as there’s a launch event July 22.

Also this month:

The Modern Arabic Fantastic, by Alexandra Shraytekh (Edinburgh University Press, July 31 2026) 

While this isn’t literature in translation, it’s a fascinating addition to contemporary scholarship by novelist Alexandra Shraytekh (also Chrieteh).

From the publisher:

The rich and lengthy Arabic corpus of fantastic fiction is one hidden in plain sight. In more broad studies of both fantastic fiction and Arabic literary and cultural history, it is notably absent. It is rarely, if ever, read as a corpus, much less as one with a rich, meandering, and turbulent history.

As fantastic modes have risen in global popularity over the past two decades, this book joins the revisionist wave of exciting critical interventions questioning the cornerstones of cultural history. It reads the current proliferation of Arabic fantastic stories as a potent return of the repressed and illuminates the persistence of premodern forms and narratives in contemporary cultural practice. Moreover, the book proposes essential categories, epistemes and historical timelines for effectively understanding the corpus of the modern Arabic fantastic, arguing that the fantastic is becoming a modern realism of our times.