DUBAI: Palestinian author Ibrahim Nasrallah’s “The Second War of the Dog” has won 2018’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction. Here, we look at former winning books that have been translated into English.
‘Frankenstein in Baghdad’
Ahmed Saadawi
This thriller, which won in 2014, is set in an Iraq beset by political instability. Protagonist Hadi Al-Attag sews together the body parts of those killed in explosions, creating a monster that soon goes missing. The dark tale was published in Arabic in 2013 and was then translated into English in 2018.
‘The Bamboo Stalk’
Saud Alsanousi
This tale of endurance in the face of abandonment begins when Josephine comes to Kuwait from the Philippines to work as a housemaid. The son of the household decides to marry her in secret, but deserts her when she falls pregnant. The novel, which won the prize in 2013, tells the story of the neglected child.
‘The Druze of Belgrade’
Rabee Jaber
After the 1860 civil war in Mount Lebanon, Druze fighters forced into exile in the Balkans are joined by a Christian egg seller from Beirut called Hanna Yacoub. The book, which won the prize in 2012, follows the group’s adventures as they struggle to stay alive in a foreign land.
‘The Dove’s Necklace’
Raja Alem
This complex story, which won the 2011 prize, is told by one of the few women on the list of awardees. The plot centers on a police officer who is incapable of finding a young woman’s killer. The Saudi author takes the reader on a spiritual journey across time and space to solve the mystery.
‘Azazeel’
Youssef Ziedan
Set in the fifth century in Alexandria and northern Syria, 2009’s winning book tells the story of the fight between Christianity and Paganism within one monk — as he struggles to harmonize his contending inner beliefs — and within the wider public.
Sunset Oasis
Bahaa Taher
The novel — 2008’s winning book — follows the life of a middle-aged Egyptian government official who is sent to govern the oasis of Siwa by his British superiors as punishment for his role in a failed revolt in 1882. His wife accompanies him, putting to bed any hopes he had of using the mission to find himself.
Six award-winning Arab books you can read in English
Six award-winning Arab books you can read in English
What We Are Reading Today: ‘A Natural History of Shells’ by Geerat Vermeij
Geerat Vermeij wrote this “celebration of shells” to share his enthusiasm for these supremely elegant creations and what they can teach us about nature.
Most popular books on shells emphasize the identification of species, but Vermeij uses shells as a way to explore major ideas in biology.
How are shells built? How do they work? And how did they evolve?
With lucidity and charm, the MacArthur-winning evolutionary biologist reveals how shells give us insights into the lives of animals today and in the distant geological past.
What We Are Reading Today: The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs
Author: Gregory S. Paul
The bestselling “Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs” remains the must-have book for anyone who loves dinosaurs, from amateur enthusiasts to professional paleontologists. Now extensively revised and expanded, this dazzlingly illustrated large-format edition features nearly 100 new dinosaur species and hundreds of new and updated illustrations, bringing readers up to the minute on the latest discoveries and research that are radically transforming what we know about dinosaurs and their world.
What We Are Reading Today: The Virtue Proposition by Sig Berg
Sig Berg, founder of the Severn Leadership Group, explains what’s missing from traditional leadership, with its emphasis on the rules and rituals of boardrooms and C-suites, and from iconoclastic leadership, which urges you to move fast and break things.
Neither of these embrace virtues, and neither has, nor ever will, deliver consistent superior results.
There is a courageous third way: virtuous leadership.
This book speaks to men and women who witness the absence of virtues and know they can do better, says a review published on goodreads.com.
What We Are Reading Today: ‘Stellar English’
Author: FRANK L. CIOFFI
“Stellar English” lays out the fundamentals of effective writing, from word choice and punctuation to parts of speech and common errors.
Frank Cioffi emphasizes how formal written English—though only a sub-dialect of the language—enables writers to reach a wide and heterogenous audience.
Cioffi’s many example sentences illustrating grammatical principles tilt in an otherworldly direction, making up a science fiction story involving alien invasion.
What We Are Reading Today: A Deadly Indifference
Author: Marshall Jevons
Harvard professor Henry Spearman—an ingenious amateur sleuth who uses economics to size up every situation—is sent by an American entrepreneur to Cambridge, England.
Spearman’s mission is to scout out the purchase of the most famous house in economic science: Balliol Croft, the former home of Professor Alfred Marshall, John Maynard Keynes’s teacher and the font of modern economic theory.
After a shocking murder, Spearman realizes that his own life is in danger as he finds himself face-to-face with the most diabolical killer in his career.
