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 rich exploration of the ambiguous place of one queer man within the close-knit fabric of working-class Tripolitanian life
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A postmodernist retelling of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis set in present-day Morocco
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Memoir and meta-narrative combine in a unique work of anti-prison literature.
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An investigation into the life of an Egyptian female writer who committed suicide in 1963
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A 30-year-old privileged Egyptian man consumed by his fears and desires, set to the backdrop of the 2011 Egyptian revolution
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Muslim and Jewish Algerians fighting against French occupation
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A Tunisian girl in Baghdad of the 1980s
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An intergenerational magical-realist story about war and conflict in Sudan
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A personal and political journey of a Tunisian militant
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In this novel, the Saudi writer Omaima El Khamis tells a fascinating story that takes place during the 11th century
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An ironic cookbook and serious socio-political commentary
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The reminiscences of a Lebanese intellectual haunted by the loss of his two lovers