In Charif Majdalani’s novel “L’empereur à pied,” an oath controls a dynasty’s inheritance. The story is an allegory of Lebanon’s dysfunctional confessional system of governmen…
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Alaa Al Aswany’s 2018 novel “The Republic, As If” follows the events of Egypt’s 2011 revolution through the perspectives of both protesters of Mubarak’s regime and citizens se…
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Algerian author Boualem Sansal explores the perils of Islamic totalitarianism in his dystopian novel “2084,” which was published in France in 2015. For the authoritarian leade…
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Meursault and Haroun, the respective narrators of Albert Camus’ 1942 novel, “The Stranger,” and Kamel Daoud’s 2012 novel, “The Meursault Investigation,” are united by their so…
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Juha, the “wise fool” of Arabic folklore, offers a playful escape from reality, while also communicating societal values.
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Egyptian poet Iman Mersal’s “Solitude Exercises” and “The Idea of Houses” both portray narrators whose feelings of unease are projected onto their relationships with their hom…
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