Arabic Literature

Arabic Literature is taking centre stage at present, with many titles starting to command a presence in the west, and many doing not so badly at all.

Here is a selection of the best Arabic literature that is currently doing well, or soon to do well. Although this category of best current Arabic literature is a little tenuous and are not necessarily written in Arabic before they are translated, they fall into the category, because the West puts them in that category! These books are considered to be some of the best around (by some!) and probably worth a little time if you are intersted in experimenting with literature from the Middle East. Some are old, some are new, but all worth a read:

Rajaa Alsanea - Girls of Riyadh (Saudi)
Alaa al Aswany - The Yacoubian Building (Egypt)
Alaa al Aswany - Chicago (Egypt)
Jabbour Douaihy - June Rain (Lebanon)
Elias Farkouh - The Land of Purgatory (Jordan)
Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner (Afghanistan)
Khaled Hosseini - A thousand Splendid suns (Afghanistan)
Khaled Khalifa - In Praise of Hate (Syria)
Khaled Al Khamissi - Taxi (Saudi)
Ibrahim Al Kouni - A Call Not Too Far (Libya)
Elias Khoury - Gate of the Sun (Lebanon)
Naguib Mahfouz - Cairo Trilogy (Egypt)
Naguib Mahfouz - Chitchat on the Nile(Egypt)
Hisham Matar - In the Country of Men (Libya)
Mekkaoui Said - Swan Song (Egypt)
May Menassa - Walking in the Dust (Lebanon)
Ahlan Mosteghanemi - Memory in the Flesh (Algeria)
Khairy Shalaby - The Lodging House (Egypt)
Huda Al Shawa - Birds Journey to the Qaf Mountain (Kuwait)
Hanan al-Shaykh – Women of Sand and Myrrh (Lebanon)
Hanan Al Shaykh - Only in London (Lebanon)
Ahdaf Soueif – The Map of Love (Egypt)
Bahaa Taher - Love in Exile (Egypt)
Baha Taher - Sunset Oasis (Egypt)
Abdellah Taïa - The Salvation Army (Morocco)
Friendly Fire: Ten Tales of Today's Cairo (Egypt)

If you are looking at some place to start as a recommendation, I would recommend the Yacoubian Building as a good place. I'm sure Chicago, Al Aswany's next book will be amazong also. Enjoy.