And so a wealth of modern literature is written in Arabic. The books below hail from Egypt, Palestine, Oman, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, and more. Authors write of women’s sexual and romantic lives, of violence and state oppression, of leaving and returning, of betrayal. They write realism, surrealism, and sci-fi satire, giving us emotional stories that are honest, bold, and engrossing. People slide through the slippery edges of time. Citizens stand in a never-ending line, waiting for the government office to open so they can get permits that will allow them to get back a job or have life-saving surgery. Women try to find a space for themselves within their marriages. A woman sets out to find proof of a moment of violence buried in history. These 12 books in translation from Arabic will make you think, hurt your heart, and encourage you to read more translated literature. Please note that while I took great care to list content warnings where I could, things can fall through the cracks. Please do additional research on the recommended titles if needed. Want more books in translation content? I have lists for you of books in translation from Catalonia, Argentina, France, Mexico, Central Africa, Japan, Southeastern Europe, Brazil, Ukraine, Sweden, China, West Africa, Germany, and Chile. If you have recommendations or requests for future lists of books in translation, or if you want me to know about a book I missed, please let me know on Twitter! Content warnings for sexual harassment, violence, gaslighting, psychological torture. Content warnings for misogyny, violence, child death. Content warnings for rape, Islamophobia, violence, terrorism. Content warnings for suicidal ideation, toxic relationship, xenophobia, parental death, incest, Islamophobia. Content warnings for violence/gore, suicide, Islamophobia/xenophobia, forced relocation, use of the g-slur. Content warnings for sexual assault and graphic rape, body horror, violence, torture, Islamophobia. Content warnings for chronic illness, mental illness, parental death, animal death, physical abuse. Content warnings for misogyny, homophobia, descriptions of sexual harassment, assault, rape. Content warnings for grief, violence, torture, sexual assault, trauma, suicidal ideation. Content warnings for death, violence, torture, police brutality, substance abuse, sexual assault. Please note that this book was substantially edited in its translation into English, which involved swapping around the order of the characters’ sections. This is a significant issue, but it’s still a great book about messy, complex women trying to live their lives in this oppressive world. So I recommend reading it, and just immediately following it with a read of Michelle Hartman’s “Gender, Genre, and the (Missing) Gazelle: Arab Women Writers and the Politics of Translation.” Content warnings for sexual harassment & assault, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, emotional abuse, manipulative relationship, exotification, ableism. Content warnings for misogyny, sexual assault, domestic abuse, child abuse, homophobia, ableism, classism.
