The Last of the Angels by Fadhil al-Azzawi, Iraq
Fadhil al-Azzawi’s 1992 The Last of the Angels while not a particularly long book (275 pages in the Free Press …
Category Archives: Books
Season of Migration to the North — Tayeb Salih, Sudan
I’ve been trying to keep my focus on fiction and film from the North African/Middle Eastern countries where the 2011 …
Wives Killing Husbands, Sons Killing Mothers
For some reason that escapes me at the moment I picked up my worn old copy of Paul Roche’s translation …
Arabic Literature as Windows into the Hearts of the Struggle
I long ago proved to myself that reading everything in the world, was impossible. I couldn’t even get through the …
A Poem from Egypt
from The Utopia of Cemeteries Unpainted walls, stone filled ground fragile bones not even able to stand and my bones …
Nawal El Saadawi: Still in the Mix in Cairo at 80
Nick Kristof in one of his posts from Tahrir Square in Cairo, talks about a hero of his, Dr. Nawal …
More Arabic Fiction in Translation
As a follow up to my earlier posting of Arabic authors in English translation, as grass-roots democracy boils across the …
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, the novel, made a nice little splash in my reading circles when it came …
Egyptian, Tunisian, Lebanese and other Arabic Authors
Once again, convulsions in distant places are teaching us geography. It is also a good time to learn about the …
Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War
I’ve been reading — actually, listening to– Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War for a week, during commute times, …
Midaq Alley — A Novel from Egypt, Naguib Mahfouz
I came to this novel, Midaq Alley, (1947) from the film, El Callejon del los Milagros, which was made from …
The Blue Sky — A Novel from the Tuvan People by Galsan Tschinag
The Blue Sky by Galsan Tschinag, of the high Altai mountains in Mongolia , is one of the most engaging, …