Middle East/North African Lit discussion

Welcome Frisco and Inji! I love both Egypt and Sardinia!

Welcome Frisco and Inji. Very interesting backgrounds!

Hi everyone! such a fantastic group and topic, i’m already excited about the first official read of this group in 2023!!
I’m Omid, Iranian, living in Canada for the last third if my life. my background is in social sciences and looking back at historical events both objectively and fictionally is interesting to me. history of middle east geopolitically as well as religion, beliefs and human psyche behind them are a focus i like to read more and more. Looking forward to learn and read with this group🙌

Welcome Omid. We hope this group is helpful for you. Happy reading!

Welcome Omid, glad you joined us! :)

Hello!

My name is Randa and I just discovered this group. I'm an Arab American from Palestine and enjoy reading fiction written by Arabs.

Being that I am Palestinian, I don't generally read about the occupation, although I'm not opposed to it 100% either. I have read Marc Lamont's Hill's Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics and it was a good read. It was great hear someone else defend Palestinians besides Palestinians.

I generally like Fiction books, especially by female writers. I love reading books by Hala Alyan (I still have to get to The Arsonists' City). Recently, I read These Impossible Things by Salma El Wardany.

It's a pleasure to meet you all and look forward to the group's activity.

Welcome Randa! Glad to have you here.

Welcome Randa. I just added Arsonist’s City to my list. Sounds really good.

Welcome, Randa! Good to have you join us.
I read The Arsonists' City a while back. I enjoyed it. I've also read her Salt Houses, which I enjoyed even more.

Welcome Randa!

Welcome Randa, you’ll like it here. I am Palestinian from Bahrain. I try to avoid it, but I’ve read some books about the occupation, both fiction and non fiction. Susan Abulhawa’s books are good.

hi everyone!
I’m from the Middle East, KSA specifically and I’ve decided to join the Goodreads community.
I’m in my first year of uni and I hope I can broaden my perspectives and immerse myself into the wonderful world of words and stories. I’ve always loved reading, but I want to up my level and discuss my opinions while simultaneously open up my third eye. Lol!

hi everyone! I’m leen as you can read from my punny username
I’m from the Middle East, KSA specifically and I’ve decided to join the Goodreads community.
I’m in my first year of uni and I hope I can broaden my perspectives and immerse myself into the wonderful world of words and stories. I’ve always loved reading, but I want to up my level and discuss my opinions while simultaneously open up my third eye. Lol!

Welcome Leen!

Hi Leen. I love the username lol.

Welcome Leen! I am happy you joined us:)

Hi, my name is Najma and im from Ireland, but ethnically im half Moroccan half Ukrainian and a practicing Muslim . For obvious reasons im interested in all things MENA.

I’m very excited to go through the book recommendations here. Can anyone let me know if this group is still active?

Hi Najma! Being a Moroccan myself I would like to recommend the book “An Arab Melancholia” by Abdullah Taïa. It’s a bit controversial but I think you will find it interesting.

Hi Najma! You might like The Translator, set in Scotland. I plan to reread it someday :)

Welcome Najma:) yes we are active. We are having open non fiction reads at the moment.

Hi, I'm Jennifer, US-born, lately living on a German island in the Baltic Sea :)
I am newly back to Goodreads after a long absence and now exploring the reading groups. I just learned about this one in the Read Women group.
My TBR list includes Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz and Minor Detail by Adania Shibli. I am excited to explore the threads here and learn more about MENA literature and find more future reads. Thank you :)

Welcome Jen. I am glad you joined us. I hope you will like it here.

Hey everyone, my name is Isabella Boughalem and I live in Missoula, MT but I grew up in Brooklyn. My dad and his whole family are Algerian from Cherchell but moved to France after the War of Independence. I didn't grow up with that side of my family so I've seen reading as a way to reconnect to my Amazigh/North African roots. I am interested in all MENA literature, as a former English major, but I have been doing a lot of research on Algeria so if anyone has any recommendations that would be great! Excited to be a part of this group and try the 2025 challenged!

Hi, I am Antonio from Italy. I am a lawyer by background. .My interest in tales and novels, and judgments and laws originates from the same root, I guess: the world-making power of well chosen words.
I live in Italy and I read literature in Italian, English, Spanish and French. Unfortunately, my Arabic is less than rudimentary. When I read I love to travel to different worlds from mine, be they real or imaginary. I have a fascination for African and North African literatures, and Bayrouk is among my favourite writers.

isa wrote: "Hey everyone, my name is Isabella Boughalem and I live in Missoula, MT but I grew up in Brooklyn. My dad and his whole family are Algerian from Cherchell but moved to France after the War of Indepe..."

Oh hey, I lived about 11 years in Brooklyn before moving to Germany during the pandemic :) but I have never been to Montana.
What comes to mind is The Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter, originally published in French. The author is French Algerian. Perhaps you already know of this one though. I read it earlier this summer and loved it.

Antonio wrote: "Hi, I am Antonio from Italy. I am a lawyer by background. .My interest in tales and novels, and judgments and laws originates from the same root, I guess: the world-making power of well chosen word..."

the world-making power of well chosen words- those are also well chosen words- well said :) How wonderful to be able to read in multiple languages. Who is Bayrouk? I don't really see anything come up on this site to see who or what books you mean.

Hi Jen, 👋 nice to "see" you here. I mispelt his name for a typo, I woul have written Beyrouk He is a Mauritanian writer, and his characters often live sfiting between two worlds: the town and the desert, the urban, individualistic way of life, with its freedom and its loniness, and the nomadic community, with its warmth and oppressive traditions. The desert and the drum (le tambour des larmes) is an excellent gate to his storytelling.

Ah yea, that one is on my to-read list. Nice to have your testimonial though since I know we felt similarly at least about the Achebe book.

I've just joined this group. I've been actively seeking out Arab fiction for the past 5-6 years because I find fiction an excellent way to get to see parts of the world from those actually connected to a region. I'm not sure if this book counts, because the author is British, but she has extensive family in the Middle East

Just finished Daughters of the Nile and have that feeling of intellectual and emotional overwhelm one gets from a truly exceptional read. This novel tells the story of three Egyptian feminist women, each a different generation within a single family. Being able to see Egypt (and Iran and Saudi Arabia and Britain) over the 1950s-2020s through the eyes of these fierce women who often find themselves at odds with one another is a powerful experience.

My ***** review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I'm pretty new here. Is there a thread to talk about what we're reading, other than the current official group read? As a rule, group reads don't work for me for many reasons (including, as with Granada, availability), but I'd love the chance to talk about the other relevant books any of us are reading.

G wrote: "I'm pretty new here. Is there a thread to talk about what we're reading, other than the current official group read? As a rule, group reads don't work for me for many reasons (including, as with Gr..."

Hi G :)

If you go to the section titled something like "2020-2024 challenge", there are discussion threads dedicated to the various regions. Each is titled something like "Nominations for (name of the region or country/countries)" and I have found some book discussion and great reading ideas in all of these, and likely in a lot of the other threads in that section too. Perhaps there are other places to look but that is what I have found particularly useful here in this group.

Jen wrote: "G wrote: "I'm pretty new here. Is there a thread to talk about what we're reading, other than the current official group read? As a rule, group reads don't work for me for many reasons (including, ..."

Thanks. Maybe I should clarify that I'm looking for people to have a current conversation with about what we're reading now not just looking for reading ideas, or to read old threads (though those can be helpful). I'm getting the feeling that's not this group, which is ok--the group is whatever the group is. I'm just trying to figure out what the group is and how it works so I can tell whether I should stay or keep looking.

Memory in the Flesh is a novel written by the Algerian writer Ahlam Mostaghanmi and published in Beirut in 1993. It won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature for the year 1998.

for Isabella Boughalem

G wrote: "Jen wrote: "G wrote: "I'm pretty new here. Is there a thread to talk about what we're reading, other than the current official group read? As a rule, group reads don't work for me for many reasons ..."

Well last year, there was a thread for our progress on the 2024 challenge, and in the 2025 brainstorming thread, a moderator said they'd be setting up the challenge for this year soon, so maybe there'll again be a thread to go with the challenge for this year, and there we could discuss current reads.
Also in that 2025 brainstorming thread, some of us mentioned who/what we hope to read this year and some of us were finding overlap in interests, but yea, so far only Granada has solidified into an organized group read...