‘Birthday in a Cellar’: New Short Fiction
“Birthday in a Cellar” appears in Amer Al-Masry’s third short-story collection, The Man Who Turned Back (الرجل الذي التفت إلى الوراء), the first book out from the new Gaza Publications.
Fiction
Classic Short Fiction: Mahmud Taymour’s ‘The Grand Funeral’
“Bashir Agha walked the doctor through the winding corridors, guiding him to Mustafa Hassan’s sickbed. The doctor followed, stepping cautiously until they arrived at a dim, dust-coated chamber littered with refuse.”
From Fatma Qandil’s ‘Empty Cages’
It’s publication day for Fatima Qandil’s raw, tenderly crafted novel Empty Cages, translated to English by Adam Talib. In this excerpt, we get a glimpse of the narrator’s relationship with her mother.
New Short Fiction: ‘Fable of the Salt’
In this short fiction, “Umm Shihab still believes in superstitions. Not a day goes by without her burning incense, afraid that an old spell might have wandered in and entered her house by mistake, or that someone is blowing under the ashes of envy, trying to ignite a fire within her.”
From Sufyan Rajab’s ‘Noah’s Hourglass’
Sufyan Rajab’s Noah’s Hourglass is no ordinary East-West love affair. The fun, sharply observed novel moves between two voices—the Tunisian Belkacem and the Ukrianian Olga—as they each try to find safe harbor in an unsafe world. An excerpt in James Scanlan’s sharp translation.
Classic Short Fiction: Muhammed Taymour’s ‘The Eid Whistle’
This classic short fiction was composed in August 1917 by Muhammed Taymour, a pioneer of modern fiction and theatrical literature in Egypt.
New Fiction: From ‘The Palace on the Higher Hill’
Winner of the 2021 Prix des Cinq Continents de la Francophonie, Karim Kattan’s The Palace on the Higher Hill — beautifully translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman and out this month from Foundry Editions — opens when Faysal receives a letter about the death of aunt he can’t remember.
From Ala Hlehel’s ‘Seven Letters to Umm Kulthum’
The award-winning “Seven Letters to Umm Kulthum” follows the story of a Palestinian family from a small, remote village in the Upper Galilee: the parents, Mustafa and Hajer, and their sons, Yazn and Nur. Events in the novel begin to unfold and unravel on December 8, 1987, when the first Palestinian intifada begins.
‘Subject: Mirror, Mirror’: An Excerpt
This excerpt from Badar Salem’s “Lonely as a Crowded Room” was translated by the author.