Moshen and his wife, Zunaira, met at the university and once looked forward to a happy and prosperous life together. But Moshen's dream of becoming a diplomat, halted by the war with Russia, dies with the ascendancy of the Taliban. Zunaira, formerly a lawyer who worked for women's rights, can no longer even appear on the streets of Kabul without a veil over her face. It is only in their own home that they can be themselves. One day, unable to resist Moshen's pleas, Zunaira dons her burqa and goe...
A NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST AND ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR'I read it in a fever, swept up in the kind of rapture you fall into when your most audacious friend kicks off on a hilarious, outrageous, but deeply sincere rant' Torrey Peters, Guardian Books of the Summer'A beautiful novel about an American son and his immigrant father that has echoes of THE GREAT GATSBY' New York TimesA deeply personal novel of identity and belonging in a nation coming apart at the seams, HOMELAND ELEGIES blends...
In Search of Walid Masoud (Middle East Literature In Translation)
by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra
When Palestinian intellectual, Walid Masoud disappears, suspicion arises that he may have gone underground as part of a political movement. Masoud leaves behind a lengthy tape recording which is transcribed by each of his comrades in a series of monologues narrating their own experiences.
He’s the perfect catch (according to his mother).From Sunday Times bestselling author Dr Amir Khan, How (Not) To Have an Arranged Marriage is a timely, heartfelt novel which looks at all aspects of modern arranged marriages.Yousef is the golden child to his strict Pakistani parents, overshadowing his younger sister, Rehana. As he finishes his medical degree in London, his life appears to be mapped out for him: become a doctor, marry a suitable girl of his parents’ choosing and, above all, make h...
Afghan-American Nadia Hashimi's literary debut novel is a searing tale of powerlessness, fate, and the freedom to control one's own fate that combines the cultural flavor and emotional resonance of the works of Khaled Hosseini, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Lisa See. In Kabul, 2007, with a drug-addicted father and no brothers, Rahima and her sisters can only sporadically attend school, and can rarely leave the house. Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows young Rahima to dr...
“[A] masterful debut . . . a novel of survival and longing and love, and in many ways a modern portrait of an artist as a young man . . . a book written for us, we Iranian Americans whom you don’t often hear about.”—Porochista Khakpour, The Washington Post (Best Books of the Year) “A triumph . . . a book of astonishing accomplishment and bravery.”—Dina Nayeri, The Guardian Winner of the Alex Award from the American Library Association • Finalist for the California Book Award and the Lambda Li...
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION AND THE NEW AMERICAN VOICES AWARD • A BOOKLIST BEST BOOK OF 2023 • Set in the Arab immigrant enclave of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, following three siblings coming of age over the course of one Ramadan, "a moving look at family, survival, and celebration" (Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America). "Breathtaking.” —New York Times Book Review "A gorgeously written and profoundly intimate debut." —Etaf Rum, author of New York Times be...
The Book of Naseeb tells the story of an idealistic heroin dealer who dreams of fitting the victims of war in Afghanistan with artificial limbs. In this breathtaking first novel, Khaled Nurul Hakim chronicles the hero's struggle for redemption through the backstreets and motorway service stations of modern Britain to the desert and mountains of a fictional borderland. Written in an exhilarating, incantatory blend of street argot and Quranic-inspired language, The Book of Naseeb charts an epic jo...
There is an ancient saying that when lovers fall out, a plane goes down. A Case of Exploding Mangoes is the story of one such plane. Why did a Hercules C130, the world's sturdiest plane, carrying Pakistan's military dictator General Zia ul Haq, go down on 17 August, 1988? Was it because of: 1.Mechanical failure 2.Human error 3.The CIA's impatience 4.A blind woman's curse 5.Generals not happy with their pension plans 6.The mango season Or could it be your narrator, Ali Shigri? Here are the fa...
By turns astonishing, frightening, and triumphant, When the Moon Is Low chronicles one brave Afghan woman's odyssey to save her family In Kabul, we meet Fereiba, a schoolteacher who puts her troubled childhood behind her when she finds love in an arranged marriage. But Fereiba's comfortable life implodes when the Taliban rises to power and her family becomes a target of the new fundamentalist regime. Forced to flee with her three children, Fereiba has one hope for survival: to seek refuge with...
'A subversive debut... Her spiky prose style provocatively undercuts received narratives about the "American dream" from the immigrant's perspective' Guardian'Unforgettable... Rarely does a book sharpen how you see the world around you, but American Fever does just that. It dazzled me on every page' Julie Buntin, author of Marlena*The winner of an Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature*On a year-long exchange programme in rural Oregon, sixteen-year-old Hira must swap Kashmiri chai for volle...
One of The Millions Most Anticipated Books for Spring! Featured in Alta Magazine's New Books for May! Short stories from 25 emerging and established writers of Middle Eastern and North African origins, a unique collection of voices and viewpoints that illuminate life in the global Arab/Muslim world. "Provocative and subtle, nuanced and surprising, these stories demonstrate how this complicated and rich region might best be approached—through the power of literature."—Viet Thanh Nguyen, author...