Items16The creator’s order
  1. 1Celestial Bodies (2018)Celestial Bodies (2018) 7.3/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2018Translated by Marilyn Booth In the Omani village of al-Awafi, one sister marries after heartbreak, another out of duty, and a third waits for the man she loves to return from Canada. Alharthi lets their different choices open onto changing fortunes across the village. Start here if you want a…0
  2. 2The Final Bet (2008)The Final Bet (2008)Published Jan 1, 2008Translated by Jonathan Smolin When a wealthy French woman is killed in Casablanca, her younger husband Othman immediately looks like an easy suspect. Read this compact detective novel for the way money and social position shape what the police are prepared to believe. The pleasure lies in looking…0
  3. 3Only in London (1998)Only in London (1998)Published Jan 1, 1998Translated by Catherine Cobham A turbulent flight from Dubai puts a Moroccan woman, an Iraqi divorcee, a British art specialist, and a Lebanese man transporting a monkey on a collision course. The resulting London novel is funny about the identities people try on. Amira’s decision to pass as a…0
  4. 4The Doves Necklace (2014)The Doves Necklace (2014) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2014Translated by Katharine Halls and Adam Talib In The Dove’s Necklace, a woman’s body is discovered in a Mecca alley that has its own voice and memories. Choose this if the idea of a city infiltrating a murder investigation appeals to you. The lane’s perspective makes the architecture and intimate…0
  5. 5The bamboo stalk (2015)The bamboo stalk (2015)Published Jan 1, 2015Translated by Jonathan Wright The son of a Filipino domestic worker and a Kuwaiti father grows up in the Philippines expecting Kuwait to welcome him one day. Follow him across the two countries for a family story about how the same parentage can be read differently depending on where he stands.0
  6. 6The Queue (2016)The Queue (2016)Published Jan 1, 2016Translated by Elisabeth Jaquette Yehia needs official permission to get a bullet removed, and the Gate that grants permissions won’t open. Waiting puts him next to people with very different things to lose. It’s a sharp, short dystopia for readers who can imagine how much power there is in making…0
  7. 7The Bride of Amman (2015)The Bride of Amman (2015)Published Jan 1, 2015Translated by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp Marriage means different things to the young people whose stories cross in Amman. The book moves among their voices so that a decision that looks straightforward from one side of a family sounds very different from another. Pick it for a city novel that takes…0
  8. 8Drowning (2021)Drowning (2021)Published Jan 1, 2021Translated by Paul G. Starkey In The Drowning, when a body washes up near a rural Sudanese town, Fatima goes to the Nile in case it brings back news of her own missing daughter. The book’s shifting chronology brings the histories of several women into view. Choose it if you’re ready for a hard…0
  9. 9Land Without Jasmine (2012)Land Without Jasmine (2012)Published Jan 1, 2012Translated by William M. Hutchins A university student disappears in Sana’a. Jasmine has left a diary, and the investigator hears a series of self-serving accounts from the people around her. Read this short mystery for the tension between what a woman has to say about herself and what her…0
  10. 10No Knives in the Kitchens of This City (2016)No Knives in the Kitchens of This City (2016)Published Jan 1, 2016Translated by Leri Price Follow Sawsan and her family through decades of life in Aleppo as she puts her faith in one possible refuge after another. Khalifa shows how public fear seeps into a household. It’s a demanding choice for a reader who wants to spend time with a family as that pressure…0