The stories within Hisham Bustani's The Monotonous Chaos of Existence explore the turbulent transformation in contemporary Arab societies. With a deft and poetic touch, Bustani examines the interpersonal with a global lens, connects the seemingly contradictory, and delves into the ways that international conflict can tear open the individuals that populate his world-all while pushing the narrative form into new and unexpected terrain.

Named one of NPR's Books We Love

In this riveting take on One Thousand and One Nights, Shaherazade, at the center of her own story, uses wit and political mastery to navigate opulent palaces brimming with treachery and the perils of the Third Crusade as her Persian homeland teeters on the brink of destruction.

In twelfth century, Persia, clever and dreamy Shaherazade stumbles on the Malik's beloved wife entwined with a lover in a sun-dappled courtyard. When Shaherazade recounts her first tale, the story of this infidelity, to the Malik, she sets the Seljuk Empire on fire.

Enraged at his wife's betrayal, the once-gentle Malik beheads her. But when that killing does not quench his anger, the Malik begins to marry and behead a new bride each night. Furious at the murders, his province seethes on rebellion's edge. To suppress her guilt, quell threats of a revolt, and perhaps marry the man she has loved since childhood, Shaherazade persuades her beloved father, the Malik's vizier, to offer her as the next wife. On their wedding night, Shaherazade begins a yarn, but as the sun ascends she cuts the story short, ensuring that she will live to tell another tale, a practice she repeats night after night.

But the Malik's rage runs too deep for Shaherazade to exorcise alone. And so she and her father persuade the Malik to leave Persia to join Saladin's fight against the Crusaders in Palestine. With plots spun against the Seljuks from all corners, Shaherazade must maneuver through intrigue in the age's greatest courts to safeguard her people. All the while, she must keep the Malik enticed with her otherworldly tales--because the slightest misstep could cost Shaherazade her head.

This suspenseful first-person retelling is vividly rendered through the voice of a fully imagined Shaherazade, a book lover whose late mother bestowed the gift of story that becomes her power. Created over fourteen years of writing and research, Jamila Ahmed's gorgeously written debut is a celebration of storytelling and a love letter to the medieval Islamic world that brings to life one of the most enduring and intriguing woman characters of all time.

Cry in a Long Night opens with Amin Samaa, a young man, walking the length of his native city on a stormy night. He is on his way to the palace of his employer, the aristocratic heiress Inayat Yasser, who has employed him as a writer to work on a grand history of her Ottoman family. On his night journey across the city, Amin recalls his idyllic childhood in a nearby village, his father's death when he was just ten years old, and his family's move to the city's poorest quarters. Thoughts of his estranged wife, Sumaya Shanoub, haunt him continually and her sudden reappearance forces him to make a decision that will change his life drastically.

Hamza Bogary describes a bygone way of life that has now irreversibly disappeared. He speaks of life in Mecca before the advent of oil. Only partly autobiographical, the memoir is nevertheless rich in remembered detail based on Bogary's early observations of life in Mecca. He has transformed his knowledge into art through his sense of humor, empathy, and remarkable understanding of human nature. This work not only entertains; it also informs its readers about the Arabia of the first half of the twentieth century in a graphic and fascinating way. The narrator, young Muhaisin, deals with various aspects of Arabian culture, including education, pilgrimages, styles of clothing, slavery, public executions, the status of women, and religion. Muhaisin is frank in his language and vivid in his humor. The reader quickly comes to love the charming and mischievous boy in this universal tale.

A stirring story of love discovered in unexpected places, growing us beyond who we thought we were--or imagined we could become

Summer, 1981--Following the death of her father, Becky Klein, an adventurous, naive young woman from the Midwest, sets out for the Middle East, in search of her Jewish roots. She discovers something more, in a Gaza garden near a refugee camp by the sea. There she befriends the garden's owner, a Palestinian activist who has served time in Israeli jails. As their relationship grows, Rebecca finds herself drawn into a story of roots unlike the one she had imagined.

The West Bank, Cairo, Yarmouk, Benghazi--before long, their romance careens across a region in flames, child in tow, wrestling with conflicting maps of love, family and home.

Moving, yet brimming with flashes of humor, Alison Glick's tangle with the search for purpose and commitment yields a bracing, radiant story for these times.

A brutal tale of revenge, insanity and depravity by the winner of the Arabic Booker Prize 2010.

In a bitter culture clash underpinned by racial and class tension, both perpetrator and victim lose out. This no-holds-barred account tells how a man loses a leg and his sanity in his obsession to gain revenge. Madness derived from obsessive behavior sees another of the players plunge to the depths of depravity in a bid to appease evil spirits.

This is prize-winning author Abdo Khal at his best, confident and shocking in his confrontation of entrenched shibboleth. Powerful and controversial writing by an author who is known for the unblinking acuity he brings to his metaphorical presentation of life's angsts.

Part of Nomad Publishing's range of authors in translation, painting a vivid picture of Arabia at a time of astonishingly rapid change.

In Alharthi's world, it's not only the future that holds promise; the past has possibility and opportunities for revision, too. --The New York Times Book Review

From Man Booker International Prize-winning author of Celestial Bodies and Bitter Orange Tree, a new novel about two Omani women whose unbreakable connection is forged as nursing sisters--a bond considered akin to that of a birth sibling

Raised as sisters, Ghazaala is devastated when her friend Asiya is forced to leave their small mountainside village following a tragic circumstance. It's a separation that haunts her into adulthood, and she never gives up on finding a love that might replace the bond they shared.

Years later, Ghazaala's family moves to Muscat, where she falls in love with a professional violinist who lives in their building. She completely surrenders herself to his charm and, despite her parents' opposition, runs away from home to marry him. While balancing the duties of a new wife--caring for her husband, their home, and, before long, their twin boys--Ghazaala resumes her education and enrolls in university.

Ghazaala's sharp wit catches the attention of another student, Harir, during their freshman year. In the pages of her diary, Harir recounts the story of her deepening, transformative friendship with Ghazaala over the course of ten years. The elusive, ghostly existence of Asiya exerts a force over both their lives, yet neither Ghazaala nor Harir is aware of the connection. From the brilliant mind of Jokha Alharthi comes a tale of childhood friendship, and how its significance--and loss--can be recalibrated at different stages of life.

Author of The Gulf States and Oman, Australian photojournalist Christine Osborne draws inspiration from her striking images of the Arab states in a volume of short stories featuring imagined characters from a bygone age. Based on meticulous research and memories of people met at the time, we are introduced to Wajid the pearl diver, Ahmed the fisherman and Aisha of the benevolent date palm. Even Aziz, a cat who dreams of living in the Queen of Sheba's palace, has a chapter devoted to him. Wajid & the Perfect Pearl: Tales of Old Araby is an attractive read for all interested in this fascinating part of the world. It is equally a useful teaching aid for students of English. 40 colour photographs.