Lock-in Literature: Ali el-Makk’s ‘Forty-One Minarets’
“What about the one who called the mosque after himself and built a sky-scraping minaret? People said he built his wealth from dubious deals. Certainly, people’s gossip was endless.”
Fiction
Safia Ketou: The First Algerian Sci-fi Novelist of Post-independence Algeria
For Women in Translation Month, our Algeria editor writes about one of her favorite discoveries, whose La Planète Mauve et Autres Nouvelles should certainly be brought into English By Nadia Ghanem In six […]
Read an Excerpt from Badriya Albeshr’s ‘Thursdays Visitors,’ Newly Banned in Saudi
“The ministry of culture and information has withdrawn the book ‘Thursday’s Visitors’… and opened an investigation into the matter.”
An Excerpt from Najwa Bin Shatwan’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction-shortlisted ‘Slave Pens’
“Why scrape off my scabbed wound now, Haj Ali? Why prolong tales after the season of their telling has passed?”
‘Using Life’: A Novel Excerpt on Trial in Egypt
“On the way, the streets were washed over and empty of traffic. It’s a holiday: perhaps the Islamic New Year, or Victory Day, or Revolution Day, or Saltwater Catfish Day. Whatever it was, the city looked drowsy and everyone was checked out.”
The Best 100 Arabic Books (According to the Arab Writers Union): 1-10
Somehow, I thought I could quickly track down each of these 100 titles, translate them (roughly), note whether or not an English translation or excerpt exists, and be done with […]