Literature of the Middle East
Fiction
- Abu-Jaber, Diana ArabianJazz
- The story of an Arab-American family living in a working-class town in upstate New York and their particular blend of “East meets West.”
- Al-Qa’id, Yusuf War in theLand of Egypt
- A desperate father’s attempt to keep his son from being drafted on the eve of the 1973 October war goes horribly amiss when he convinces a poor night watchman to send his son as a substitute.
- Ben Jelloun, Tahar Corruption
- A contemporary Moroccan bureaucrat is torn between his sense of morality and pleasing his family and colleagues by compromising his integrity.
- Berberian, Viken TheCyclist
- The fractured memories of a hospitalized terrorist in Beirut comprise this first novel about a cyclist who bombs a large resort-hotel using a cross-country bike race as a cover.
- Daneshvar, Simin A PersianRequiem
- The courageous struggle of an Iranian woman to maintain normalcy for her family and village in post WWII Persia under British occupation is considered a modern classic.
- Djebar, Assia So Vast thePrison
- A contemporary Algerian woman endures societal oppression while exploring the rich relationships between the women, history, and languages of North Africa.
- Ibrahim, Sun’Allah TheCommittee
- An unknown narrator petitions the ruling body of his unnamed country in this tersely written, Kafkaesque novel that deals with power, its abuse, and the consequences of questioning it.
- Idlibi, Ulfat Grandfather’s Tale
- A family tale of loss and return deals with a grown man, now a high official in Mecca’s Pilgrimage Caravan organization, who seeks his mother, left behind when the family made their trek to Damascus many years before.
- Khashoggi, Soheir Mirage
- Amira, a young girl from a wealthy, powerful Saudi family, escapes her oppressive society and brutal husband to start a new life in the United States for herself and her baby.
- Khedairi, Betool A Sky SoClose
- A haunting coming-of-age story set in Iraq during the Iraq-Iran war. A young girl with an Iraqi father and English mother must come to terms with life during wartime, her own family’s conflict of cultures, and the struggle to become one’s true, adult self.
- Maalouf, Amin The Gardensof Light
- A tale of the quest for religious tolerance set in the ancient past. A visionary painter, doctor and prophet in third century Mesopotamia (now Iraq) attempts to create a fusion of Gnosticism, Christianity, Buddhism, and pagan beliefs.
- A pacifistic Turkish-Lebanese aristocrat reflects upon a life filled with rebellion, passion, and war in the mid-20th century, as well as his personal values and the struggles of his people.
- Mahfouz, Naguib Akhenaten,Dweller in Truth
- A novel of ancient Egypt tells the story of the monotheistic “Sun King” written by one of Egypt’s most renowned and prolific authors and winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize for literature.
- Also by this author:
- Adrift on the Nile
- Arabian Nights and Days
- The Harafish
- The Journey of Ibn Fattouma
- Palace Walk
- Palace of Desire
- Sugar Street
- The Time and the Place and Other Stories
- Marouane, Leila TheAbductor
- According to Egyptian law, a man may divorce his wife with a quick verbal declaration, repeated three times. In a story containing both tragic and comic elements, a man who does just that regrets his rash act and wishes to re-marry her. But, he first must find her an interim husband willing to wed her and then divorce her.
- Munif, Abdelrahman Cities ofSalt
- The impact of American oil workers on an impoverished Persian Gulf community in the 1930s. This is a story of cultural confrontation in which religion, history, politics, and all manner of mutual misunderstandings abound.
- A satiric, powerful novel set in the 1950s depicts an unnamed Persian Gulf oil sheikdom—obscenely wealthy, full of intrigue, highly repressive—and continues the saga begun in Munif’s Cities of Salt trilogy.
- The final volume of Munif’s trilogy tells the story of the rise to power of Sultan Khureybit and his country’s emergence as a modern nation. Full of plots and intrigues, this biting political satire cost Munif his Saudi citizenship when it hit too close to home.
- Ozdamar, Emine Sevgi MotherTongue
- Loosely based on her own life as the child of Turkish immigrants in Germany, here are four related stories about a woman’s identity in exile.
- Pamuk, Orhan The NewLife
- A young Turkish student’s life is changed dramatically by a book he reads in this novel about a culture and country suspended precariously between East and West. Also by this author:
- The Black Book
- The White Castle
- Pezeshkzad Iraj My UncleNapoleon
- A comic satire of Iranian society in the early 1940s is set in a three-family household dominated by a tyrannical and paranoid patriarch.
- Saadawi, Nawal The Innocenceof the Devil
- The lives of two young women and their efforts to survive in an oppressive, male-dominated society are told in this novel that blends reality and fantasy in a sensual narrative style. Written by one of Egypt’s leading feminists.
- Schami, Rafik DamascusNights
- The most famous storyteller in Damascus is mysteriously struck dumb, so seven of his dear friends gather for seven nights to spin seven spell-breaking stories. Set in 1959 Syria, they reflect the changing politics and culture of the era by telling of ancient legends, fairies, princesses, and djinns.
- Shaykh, Hanan I Sweep theSun Off Rooftops: Stories
- Dealing with lives at the intersection of modernity and tradition, with the shifting power relationships that are part of today’s Arab world, here are seventeen witty, insightful stories by this acclaimed Lebanese author.
- Only in London
- Thrown together by fate, four people from different corners of the Arab world settle in London where their lives continue to intertwine and collide, mirroring the cultural fusions and clashes of eastern and western societies.
- Solé, Robert ThePhotographer’s Wife
- The tale of a late 19th century Egyptian woman whose love of and talent for photography overshadow her husband’s, straining their family life and, to the dismay of Cairo society, driving her to seek independence.
- Soueif, Ahdaf In the Eye ofthe Sun
- A bold, fresh look at the struggles between men and women, East and West, tradition and modernity, through the eyes of Asya, a well-born Egyptian woman and graduate student.
- The Map of Love
- Spanning three continents and one century, this novel relates the stories of two cross-cultural love affairs between western women and Egyptian men.
- Taher, Bahaa Aunt Safiyyaand the Monastery
- A young Muslim man is given sanctuary in a Christian monastery when the widow of the man he killed in self-defense seeks revenge.
Poetry and Anthologies
- Agha, Shahid Ali Rooms AreNever Finished: Poems (811.54 Agha.S)
- Poetry in various classic forms—canzones, sonnets, ghazals, prose—relating the intimate emotions of grief upon a beloved parent’s death.
- Ali, Taha Muhammad Never Mind:Twenty Poems and a Story (892.716 Ali.T)
- One of the leading writers on the modern Palestinian literary scene, Ali’s poetry is known for its force and directness. Grounded in everyday experiences, his work is unflinchingly honest, often humorous, and colloquial.
- Chopra, Deepak, editor The Soul inLove: Classic Poems of Ecstasy and Exaltation (891.5511 Soul)
- Edited and translated by Chopra, these works by five different poets span seven centuries and represent a long tradition of passionate and erotic verse as well as the mystical sensibility that can bring about a spiritual awakening.
- Darwish, Mahmud The Adam ofTwo Edens: Selected Poems (892.716 Darwi.M)
- Poems of lyric intensity and passion by one of today’s most acclaimed Arab poets bear witness to a life in exile and give voice to the Palestinian diaspora.
- Hafiz The Gift:Poems by Hafiz, the Great Sufi Master (891.5511 Hafiz)
- Ecstatic love poetry by one of the most famous masters of mysticism. This 14th century Persian poet explores the healing dimension of verse.
- Handal, Natalie, editor The Poetry ofArab Women: A Contemporary Anthology (892.71608 Poetry)
- A stunning collection of voices seldom heard in the West avoids stereotyping and opens our eyes to the complexity of life and lifestyles in today’s Middle East.
- Ibn al-Arabi Stations ofDesire (892.7124 IbnalAr)
- A first translation of this master of medieval Sufi love poetry into modern poetic English by Michael Sells.
- Irwin, Robert, editor Night andHorses and the Desert: An Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature (892.708 Night)
- Selections from a wide range of classics, both well known and obscure, cover a time period from the 5th through 16th centuries, and a geographical area reaching from Afghanistan to Spain.
- Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana (891.5511 Jalal.M)
- In the year 1207, in ancient Persia, the brilliant scholar and poet known as Rumi was born. At the age of thirty-seven he experienced a transformation when he met and “connected” with the wandering Dervish Shams of Tabriz. Esteemed for his ecstatic works on spiritual enlightenment and his ability to express the deep longings of the human heart, Rumi is considered a true master of mysticism. Works available at this library include:
- The Essential Rumi
- AGarden Beyond Paradise
- The Glance: Songs of Soul-Meeting
- Hush, Don’t Say Anything to God: Passionate Poems of Rumi
- The Illustrated Rumi
- The Love Poems of Rumi
- Magnificent One: Selected New Verses from Divan-I Kebir
- Rumi: Past and Present, East and West
- The Soul of Rumi: a New Collection of Ecstatic Poems
- Jayyusi, Salma Khadra, editor Anthology ofModern Palestinian Literature (892.708 Antholo)
- A collection of works—poetry, prose, memoirs, short stories—by contemporary authors illuminating the record of a people caught in conflict and exile.
- Karim, Persis M. and Khorrami, Mohammad Mehdi, editorsA World Between: Poems, Short Stories, and Essays by Iranian-Americans (810.8098915 World)
- A moving collection focusing on the immigrant experience in the United States through the eyes of Iranians new to this land, as well as those of first generation Iranian-Americans.
- Lewis, Bernard and Burstein, Stanley, editors Land ofEnchanters: Egyptian Short Stories from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (Fiction Short Stories Lewis.B)
- A collection of wonderful stories, including one of the oldest love tales known to humanity, that clearly demonstrates the persistence of a culture of place, maintaining an elemental unity no matter the politics, religion, or language.
- Orfalea, Gregory and Elmusa, Sharif, editors Grape Leaves:a Century of Arab-American Poetry (811.00808927 Grape)
- A long overdue collection of twenty voices—including fifteen still living and five women—who represent a rich, people-oriented sensibility of a till now somewhat isolated sub-culture in America.
- Qabbani, Nizar On Enteringthe Sea: the Erotic and Other Poetry of Nizar Qabbani (892.716 Qabba.N)
- A modern expression of the force of the erotic in human life by a writer who is highly conscious of the changing status of women in the Arab world echoes the tradition of Arabic love poetry that goes back sixteen centuries.
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