The Anchor Book of Modern Arabic Fiction

Table Of Contents

Introduction

Ibrahim Abdel Meguid (b. 1946) Egypt
from No One Sleeps in Alexandria

Mohammad Abdul-Wali (1940–73) Yemen
Ya Khabiir

Yahya Taher Abdullah (1942–81) Egypt
Rhythms in Slow Time

Leila Abouzeid (b. 1950) Morocco
The Discontented

Yusuf Abu Rayya (b. 1955) Egypt
Dreams Seen by a Blind Boy

Idris Ali (b. 1940) Egypt
from Dongola

Daisy Al-Amir (b. 1935) Iraq
The Doctor’s Prescription

Radwa Ashour (b. 1946) Egypt
I Saw the Date-Palms

Ibrahim Aslan (b. 1939) Egypt
The Little Girl in Green
from Nile Sparrows

Alaa Al Aswany (b. 1957) Egypt
from The Yacoubian Building

Liana Badr (b. 1950) Palestine
from A Land of Stone and Thyme

Hala El Badry (b. 1954) Egypt
from A Certain Woman

Salwa Bakr (b. 1949) Egypt
Dotty Noona
from The Golden Chariot

Hoda Barakat (b. 1952) Lebanon
from The Tiller of Waters

Mohammed Barrada (b. 1938) Morocco
Life by Installments

Mohamed El-Bisatie (b. 1938) Egypt
Drought
from Clamor of the Lake

Mohamed Choukri (1935–2003) Morocco
Flower Crazy

Rashid al-Daif (b. 1945) Lebanon
from Dear Mr. Kawabata

Zayd Mutee‘ Dammaj (1943–98) Yemen
from The Hostage

Brahim Dargouthi (b. 1955) Tunisia
Apples of Paradise

Ahmad Faqih (b. 1942) Libya
from Gardens of the Night

Fathy Ghanem (1924–98) Egypt
Sunset

Gamal al-Ghitani (b. 1945) Egypt
from Zayni Barakat

Nabil Gorgy (b. 1944) Egypt
Cairo Is a Small City

Abdou Gubeir (b. 1950) Egypt
Have You Seen Alexandria Station?

Emile Habiby (1921–96) Palestine
At Last the Almond Blossomed

Tawfik al-Hakim (1898–1987) Egypt
from Diary of a Country Prosecutor

Yahya Hakki (1905–92) Egypt
from The Lamp of Umm Hashim
A Story from Prison

Sherif Hetata (b. 1923) Egypt
from The Net

Bensalem Himmich (b. 1949) Morocco
from The Polymath

Taha Hussein (1889–1973) Egypt
from A Man of Letters

Gamil Atia Ibrahim (b. 1937) Egypt
The Old Man

Sonallah Ibrahim (b. 1937) Egypt
from Zaat
from The Committee

Ulfat Idilbi (b. 1912) Syria
from Sabriya: Damascus Bitter Sweet

Yusuf Idris (1927–91) Egypt
House of Flesh
from City of Love and Ashes

Walid Ikhlassi (b. 1935) Syria
The Dead Afternoon

Jabra Ibrahim Jabra (1919–94) Palestine
from In Search of Walid Masoud

Said al-Kafrawi (b. 1939) Egypt
The Hill of Gypsies

Ghassan Kanafani (1936–72) Palestine
The Slave Fort
from Men in the Sun

Sahar Khalifeh (b. 1941) Palestine
from Wild Thorns

Edwar al-Kharrat (b. 1926) Egypt
from Rama and the Dragon

Betool Khedairi (b. 1965) Iraq
from A Sky So Close

Elias Khoury (b. 1948) Lebanon
from The Journey of Little Gandhi

Mohamed Khudayir (b. 1942) Iraq
Clocks Like Horses

Ibrahim al-Koni (b. 1948) Libya
from The Bleeding of the Stone
The Ill-Omened Golden Bird

Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006) Egypt
The Conjurer Made Off with the Dish
from Arabian Nights and Days
from Palace Walk

Mohamed Makhzangi (b. 1950) Egypt
The Pilot

Alia Mamdouh (b. 1944) Iraq
Presence of the Absent Man

Hanna Mina (b. 1924) Syria
from Fragments of Memory

Ahlam Mosteghanemi (b. 1953) Algeria
from Memory in the Flesh

Sabri Moussa (b. 1932) Egypt
Benevolence

’Abd al-Rahman Munif (1933–2004) saudi Arabia
from Endings

Muhammad al Murr (b. 1955) United Arab Emirates
Your Uncle Was a Poet

Buthaina Al Nasiri (b. 1947) Iraq
I’ve Been Here Before

Emily Nasrallah (b. 1931) Lebanon
A House Not Her Own

Ibrahim Nasrallah (b. 1954) Palestine
from Prairies of Fever

Haggag Hassan Oddoul (b. 1944) Egypt
Nights of Musk

Yusuf al-Qa’id (b. 1944) Egypt
Three Meaningless Tales

Abd al-Hakim Qasim (1935–90) Egypt
The Whistle

Somaya Ramadan (b. 1951) Egypt
from Leaves of Narcissus

Alifa Rifaat (1930–95) Egypt
An Incident in the Ghobashi Household

Nawal El Saadawi (b. 1931) Egypt
She Has No Place in Paradise
from Woman at Point Zero

Tayeb Salih (b. 1929) Sudan
from Season of Migration to the North
from Bandarshah
The Cypriot Man

Ghada Samman (b. 1942) Syria
A Gypsy without a Haven

Ibrahim Samouiel (b. 1951) Syria
My Fellow Passenger

Habib Selmi (b. 1951) Tunisia
Distant Seas

Khairy Shalaby (b. 1938) Egypt
The Clock

Hanan al-Shaykh (b. 1945) Lebanon
The Persian Carpet
from Beirut Blues

Miral al-Tahawy (b. 1968) Egypt
from The Tent

Bahaa Taher (b. 1935) Egypt
from Love in Exile

Fuad al-Takarli (b. 1927) Iraq
from The Long Way Back

Zakaria Tamer (b. 1929) Syria
A Summary of What Happened to Mohammed al-Mahmoudi

May Telmissany (b. 1965) Egypt
from Dunyazad

Mahmoud Teymour (1894–1974) Egypt
The Comedy of Death

Abdel Salam al-Ujaili (b. 1918) Syria
The Dream

Mahmoud Al-Wardani (b. 1950) Egypt
The Day Grandpa Came

Tahir Wattar (b. 1936) Algeria
from The Earthquake

Latifa al-Zayyat (1923–96) Egypt
from The Open Door

Mohamed Zefzaf (1945–2001) Morocco
Snake Hunting

Acknowledgments

Sources of Stories and Excerpts