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A captivating, polyphonic novel of one family’s flight from and return to Iran. 1979. Behsad, a young communist revolutionary, fights with his friends for a new order after the Shah’s expulsion. He tells of sparking hope, of clandestine political actions, and of how he finds the love of his life in the courageous, intelligent Nahid. 1989. Nahid lives her new life in West Germany with Behsad. With their young children, they spend hour after hour in front of the radio, hoping for news from others...

During the modernisation of Muscat, its people’s spirits seemed to harden and dry up, and one day the female jinn just disappeared. Where did they go to? Have they all died, are they in hiding after losing out to electricity and cement, to air conditioners and televisions? Has life lost its playfulness and joy without the transformational powers of the jinn? Are life’s sweet moments of pleasure and sensual delight no more, now the inhabitants are weighed down with daily chores, boring work, and...

Set in contemporary Iran, Mirage delves into the complicated relationship between Roya and her identical twin sister, Tala. Their inseparable bond becomes hard to maintain as they grow older, but when they both get pregnant at the same time, their relationship is rekindled. After an accident causes Roya to miscarry and Tala to go into labor, grief, jealousy, suspicion, and guilt fracture that recently renewed relationship. Delving deep into the human psyche, Nahid Rachlin intricately explores th...

A young girl grows up in a family uprooted by the terror of an Islamic Revolution, where her culture, her gender, and her education are in peril. For the curious and imaginative Moji, there is no better place to grow up than the lush garden of her grandparents in Tehran. However, as she sits with her sister underneath the grapevines, listening to their grandfather recount the enchanting stories of One Thousand and One Nights, revolution is brewing in her homeland. Soon, the last monarch of Iran...

The Secrets of Folder 42 opens with the author forgetting his laptop and notebook in a taxi. What a chance!! The reader is introduced to the protagonists via two storylines playing out across continents and true historical events. Their stories proceed separately and eventually interweave spectacularly. There's successful novelist Christine McMillan - the unrivalled pioneer of new American realism who is facing writer's block, and her friend from college days, Brandon, a former US soldier turne...

Lebanese Blonde takes place in 1975-76 at the beginning of Lebanon's sectarian civil war. Set primarily in the Toledo, Ohio, ""Little Syria"" community, it is the story of two immigrant cousins: Aboodeh, a self-styled entrepreneur; and Samir, his young, reluctant accomplice. Together the two concoct a scheme to import Lebanese Blonde, a potent strain of hashish, into the United States, using the family's mortuary business as a cover. When Teyib, a newly arrived war refugee, stumbles onto their...

When given the choice between love and honor, what are you willing to sacrifice? Destiny, longing and betrayal await you in this sweeping historical novel set in Elizabethan England and the Ottoman Empire of the late 16th century.England, 1591. Eager to see the world and travel the seas before settling down with a wife, English Lord William Bateman sets out for adventure while leaving his secret admirer, a local young lady named Elizabeth, behind. However, during his journey to the East, he is f...

A Notable African Book of 2023 (Brittle Paper)Tightly plotted and taboo-breaking, this explosive story takes readers to the roots of religious strife where the smallest of sparks can start a bonfire Nader, an idealistic public prosecutor at the outset of his career, leaves Cairo to start a new posting in rural upper Egypt. On his first night, a mysterious woman named Hoda shows up at his lodgings. She is on the run from an abusive husband and, harboring a dark secret, seeks a new start in this...

Samahani, the latest work by Sudanese author Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin, winner of the 2020 Prix de la Littérture Arabe, means ‘forgive me’ in Swahili, two words that stand in stark contrast to everything that happens in this novel. Set in 19th century Zanzibar, this is a dark story of slavery, cruelty and vengeance, that depict the agonies of the native Zanzibaris at the hands of both Europeans and Arabs, that turns their apparent island paradise into a living hell of cruelty and exploitation. Thr...