A calamity of noble houses

New York Times Best Historical Fiction of 2025 A finalist for the 2021 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, a compelling saga of two families that illuminates the lives of women in modern Tunisia Tunisia, 1930s. Against the backdrop of a country in turmoil, in search of its identity, the lives...

Being abbas el abd

“The millennial generation’s most celebrated literary achievement.”—Al-Ahram Weekly “The first glimmer of hope for a true fictional renaissance—an instantly rewarding read embraced by an unprecedented range of literary figures”—The Daily Star What is madness?” asks the narrator of Ahmed Alaidy...

Being abbas el abd

A cult classic in modern Arab literature, filled with black humor and satire, reissued in a new edition“What this inventive and mad novel portrays is the split within Egyptian society, torn between religiosity and liberation.”—Robert Solé, Le Monde"What is madness?” asks the narrator of Ahmed Ala...

Empty cages

Winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature "Few writers possess Fatma's boldness”—The New Arab An urgent and raw confessional of memory and family and all that is lost and won in one woman's lifetime The discovery of an old tin of chocolates, its contents long ago devoured, marks the entry...

Granada

A TOP 100 LITERARY WORK OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (THE ARAB WRITERS UNION)RUNNER-UP TO THE WINNER OF THE 2025 SAIF GHOBASH BANIPAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC LITERARY TRANSLATIONA BOOK RIOT BEST BOOK OF 2024“A magnum opus of prose fiction”—Marina Warner, author of Once Upon a TimeA multigenerational epic se...

I loved you for your voice

The story of one man’s love for a woman, that woman’s love for her music and her country, and of an entire world’s love for its idols. A poet and a singer, unrequited love and a troubled national history: these are the subjects of Sélim Nassib’s I Loved You for Your Voice. Inspired by the life an...

Memoirs of a woman doctor

Red like orange

An offbeat tale of creativity, friendship, and finding your voice in this uproarious journey through Cairo's music scene in the early 2000s, where everything from American rock to Egyptian popular songs cultivates big dreamsWINNER OF THE SAWIRIS CULTURAL AWARDFollowing a breakup with his long-ter...

Remember the bees

In an ancient Moroccan apiary, a young boy’s inheritance of bees is endangered by climate change, family secrets, and the silence surrounding grief.High in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, surrounded by valleys once rich with lavender and thyme, stands a centuries-old complex of communal beehives....

Siegebreakers

Under the crushing weight of the siege of Gaza, Laila and Nasser are members of the Palestinian resistance fighting desperately to free their people. Together, they learn of a plan to unite the disparate Palestinian factions and break Israel’s siege. Unknown to them, Ari, a brilliant Israeli spy,...

Tangerinn

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICEA New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Lit Hub Most Anticipated Book of 2026 “Italian literature has been waiting years for a novel like this.”—Vincenzo Latronico, author of PerfectionA luminous debut about the search for belonging, the tension between departure ...

The essential yusuf idris

A carefully curated collection of short story masterpieces by Yusuf Idris, the Arab world’s greatest short-story writer of the twentieth century, called the “genius of the short story” by Tawfiq al-Hakim''Like the Russian aristocrats of Chekhov, the provincial bourgeoisie of Flaubert, or the Ibo ...

The essential yusuf idris

A carefully curated collection of short story masterpieces by Yusuf Idris, the Arab world’s greatest short-story writer of the twentieth century, called the “genius of the short story” by Tawfiq al-Hakim, now in paperback''Like the Russian aristocrats of Chekhov, the provincial bourgeoisie of Fla...

The penguin's song

A family in exile from their home in old Beirut contends with claustrophobic conditions, recriminations, and unrealizable dreams of return.