The following selection of books have been recommended and reviewed by the LEILA project’s jury members who are Arabic literature specialists, many of them translators and writers themselves. These recommendations have been chosen with European publishers in mind, who are interested in finding out more about books from the Arab world. When available, contact information for foreign rights (author, agent, or publisher) is provided.
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A postmodernist retelling of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis set in present-day Morocco -
The true story of an illegal immigrant’s harrowing journey -
An investigation into the life of an Egyptian female writer who committed suicide in 1963 -
A 30-year-old privileged Egyptian man consumed by his fears and desires, set to the backdrop of the 2011 Egyptian revolution -
A rich exploration of the ambiguous place of one queer man within the close-knit fabric of working-class Tripolitanian life -
An intergenerational magical-realist story about war and conflict in Sudan -
A personal and political journey of a Tunisian militant -
A timely portrayal of human life under late capitalism, in a world simmering with lust and fear -
An exquisite scream of clever rage at the contemporary moment -
Exploring Cairo through love stories that failed by a hair -
The impact of conflict on everyday life in Libya -
A Tunisian girl in Baghdad of the 1980s -
Muslim and Jewish Algerians fighting against French occupation -
An officer effortlessly slaughters a rival ethnic group before realising he is part of it as well -
The reminiscences of a Lebanese intellectual haunted by the loss of his two lovers -
Contemporary Syria from a dark psychedelic perspective -
An ironic cookbook and serious socio-political commentary
