This dazzling anthology features the work of seventy-nine outstanding writers from all over the Arab-speaking world, from Morocco in the west to Iraq in the east, Syria in the north to Sudan in the south.

Edited by Denys Johnson-Davies, called by Edward Said “the leading Arabic-to-English translator of our time,” this treasury of Arab voices is diverse in styles and concerns, but united by a common language. It spans the full history of modern Arabic literature, from its roots in western cultural influence at the end of the nineteenth century to the present-day flowering of Naguib Mahfouz’s literary sons and daughters. Among the Egyptian writers who laid the foundation for the Arabic literary renaissance are the great Tawfik al-Hakim; the short story pioneer Mahmoud Teymour; and Yusuf Idris, who embraced Egypt’s vibrant spoken vernacular. An excerpt from the Sudanese writer Tayeb Salih’s novel Season of Migration to the North, one of the Arab world’s finest, appears alongside the Libyan writer Ibrahim al-Koni’s tales of the Tuaregs of North Africa, the Iraqi writer Mohamed Khudayir’s masterly story “Clocks Like Horses,” and the work of such women writers as Lebanon’s Hanan al-Shaykh and Morocco’s Leila Abouzeid.

"This sweeping anthology is as eclectic as the nations it represents. Johnson-Davies, called 'the leading Arabic-to-English translator of our time' by Edward Said, collects work from 79 writers across 14 countries. Among those included are Mahmoud Teymour, widely regarded as the father of the Arabic short story; Naguib Mahfouz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature; and Hanan al-Shaykh, a female writer in Arabic whose work in translation has far outsold copies in her native tongue. The quality of these short stories, novellas, and novel excerpts vary, but there are many standouts, including Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's emotionally dynamic excerpt from the novel In Search of Walid Masoud; Nawal El Saadawi's brave treatment of sex, slavery and women; Yusuf Idris's morally resonant excerpt from City of Love and Ashes; and the lyrical entries from Al-Shaykh and Mahfouz. Though some readers might grow tired of the religious piety and conservative thought offered up in most of the work, readers who are interested in dipping into a contemporary literary canon very different from the West's will find this an illuminating resource. An introduction by Johnson-Davies provides a lucid yet brief overview, as do the short biographies preceding each author's work." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

A distinguished array of Arab voices ring out from the pages of this landmark anthology. Spanning the full history of modern Arabic literature, from its roots in western cultural influence at the end of the nineteenth century, to the present-day flowering of Naguib Mahfouz's literary sons and daughters, here are 79 writers from all over the Arab world, diverse in their styles and concerns, but all united by a common language.

Introduction

Ibrahim Abdel Meguid (b. 1946) Egypt

from No One Sleeps in Alexandria

Mohammad Abdul-Wali (1940–73) Yemen

Ya Khabiir

Yahya Taher Abdullah (1942–81) Egypt

Rhythms in Slow Time

Leila Abouzeid (b. 1950) Morocco

The Discontented

Yusuf Abu Rayya (b. 1955) Egypt

Dreams Seen by a Blind Boy

Idris Ali (b. 1940) Egypt

from Dongola

Daisy Al-Amir (b. 1935) Iraq

The Doctor’s Prescription

Radwa Ashour (b. 1946) Egypt

I Saw the Date-Palms

Ibrahim Aslan (b. 1939) Egypt

The Little Girl in Green

from Nile Sparrows

Alaa Al Aswany (b. 1957) Egypt

from The Yacoubian Building

Liana Badr (b. 1950) Palestine

from A Land of Stone and Thyme

Hala El Badry (b. 1954) Egypt

from A Certain Woman

Salwa Bakr (b. 1949) Egypt

Dotty Noona

from The Golden Chariot

Hoda Barakat (b. 1952) Lebanon

from The Tiller of Waters

Mohammed Barrada (b. 1938) Morocco

Life by Installments

Mohamed El-Bisatie (b. 1938) Egypt

Drought

from Clamor of the Lake

Mohamed Choukri (1935–2003) Morocco

Flower Crazy

Rashid al-Daif (b. 1945) Lebanon

from Dear Mr. Kawabata

Zayd Mutee‘ Dammaj (1943–98) Yemen

from The Hostage

Brahim Dargouthi (b. 1955) Tunisia

Apples of Paradise

Ahmad Faqih (b. 1942) Libya

from Gardens of the Night

Fathy Ghanem (1924–98) Egypt

Sunset

Gamal al-Ghitani (b. 1945) Egypt

from Zayni Barakat

Nabil Gorgy (b. 1944) Egypt

Cairo Is a Small City

Abdou Gubeir (b. 1950) Egypt

Have You Seen Alexandria Station?

Emile Habiby (1921–96) Palestine

At Last the Almond Blossomed

Tawfik al-Hakim (1898–1987) Egypt

from Diary of a Country Prosecutor

Yahya Hakki (1905–92) Egypt

from The Lamp of Umm Hashim

A Story from Prison

Sherif Hetata (b. 1923) Egypt

from The Net

Bensalem Himmich (b. 1949) Morocco

from The Polymath

Taha Hussein (1889–1973) Egypt

from A Man of Letters

Gamil Atia Ibrahim (b. 1937) Egypt

The Old Man

Sonallah Ibrahim (b. 1937) Egypt

from Zaat

from The Committee

Ulfat Idilbi (b. 1912) Syria

from Sabriya: Damascus Bitter Sweet

Yusuf Idris (1927–91) Egypt

House of Flesh

from City of Love and Ashes

Walid Ikhlassi (b. 1935) Syria

The Dead Afternoon

Jabra Ibrahim Jabra (1919–94) Palestine

from In Search of Walid Masoud

Said al-Kafrawi (b. 1939) Egypt

The Hill of Gypsies

Ghassan Kanafani (1936–72) Palestine

The Slave Fort

from Men in the Sun

Sahar Khalifeh (b. 1941) Palestine

from Wild Thorns

Edwar al-Kharrat (b. 1926) Egypt

from Rama and the Dragon

Betool Khedairi (b. 1965) Iraq

from A Sky So Close

Elias Khoury (b. 1948) Lebanon

from The Journey of Little Gandhi

Mohamed Khudayir (b. 1942) Iraq

Clocks Like Horses

Ibrahim al-Koni (b. 1948) Libya

from The Bleeding of the Stone

The Ill-Omened Golden Bird

Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006) Egypt

The Conjurer Made Off with the Dish

from Arabian Nights and Days

from Palace Walk

Mohamed Makhzangi (b. 1950) Egypt

The Pilot

Alia Mamdouh (b. 1944) Iraq

Presence of the Absent Man

Hanna Mina (b. 1924) Syria

from Fragments of Memory

Ahlam Mosteghanemi (b. 1953) Algeria

from Memory in the Flesh

Sabri Moussa (b. 1932) Egypt

Benevolence

’Abd al-Rahman Munif (1933–2004) saudi Arabia

from Endings

Muhammad al Murr (b. 1955) United Arab Emirates

Your Uncle Was a Poet

Buthaina Al Nasiri (b. 1947) Iraq

I’ve Been Here Before

Emily Nasrallah (b. 1931) Lebanon

A House Not Her Own

Ibrahim Nasrallah (b. 1954) Palestine

from Prairies of Fever

Haggag Hassan Oddoul (b. 1944) Egypt

Nights of Musk

Yusuf al-Qa’id (b. 1944) Egypt

Three Meaningless Tales

Abd al-Hakim Qasim (1935–90) Egypt

The Whistle

Somaya Ramadan (b. 1951) Egypt

from Leaves of Narcissus

Alifa Rifaat (1930–95) Egypt

An Incident in the Ghobashi Household

Nawal El Saadawi (b. 1931) Egypt

She Has No Place in Paradise

from Woman at Point Zero

Tayeb Salih (b. 1929) Sudan

from Season of Migration to the North

from Bandarshah

The Cypriot Man

Ghada Samman (b. 1942) Syria

A Gypsy without a Haven

Ibrahim Samouiel (b. 1951) Syria

My Fellow Passenger

Habib Selmi (b. 1951) Tunisia

Distant Seas

Khairy Shalaby (b. 1938) Egypt

The Clock

Hanan al-Shaykh (b. 1945) Lebanon

The Persian Carpet

from Beirut Blues

Miral al-Tahawy (b. 1968) Egypt

from The Tent

Bahaa Taher (b. 1935) Egypt

from Love in Exile

Fuad al-Takarli (b. 1927) Iraq

from The Long Way Back

Zakaria Tamer (b. 1929) Syria

A Summary of What Happened to Mohammed al-Mahmoudi

May Telmissany (b. 1965) Egypt

from Dunyazad

Mahmoud Teymour (1894–1974) Egypt

The Comedy of Death

Abdel Salam al-Ujaili (b. 1918) Syria

The Dream

Mahmoud Al-Wardani (b. 1950) Egypt

The Day Grandpa Came

Tahir Wattar (b. 1936) Algeria

from The Earthquake

Latifa al-Zayyat (1923–96) Egypt

from The Open Door

Mohamed Zefzaf (1945–2001) Morocco

Snake Hunting

Acknowledgments

Sources of Stories and Excerpts